The tents are being dismantled. The stage is nearly gone. Traffic has returned somewhat to normal in our town as the NFL Draft hustle and bustle has left town. A reported 300,000 people over the course of three days attended the draft with a record 125,000 attending on night one down at Union Station.
The economic impacts should be far-reaching for our community with that many football fans in town. However, some reports indicate that the weekend was a bust for local businesses downtown and around the area. A KSHB report noted that businesses outside about a three or four block radius of the draft area saw next to no business – in fact, less than a normal weekend, while BBQ joints, strip clubs and casinos all were packed to the rafters.
The event was clearly a dress rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup, which will bring tens of thousands of fans to Kansas City – so there are lessons to be learned for everyone involved.
But I hope the biggest lesson learned is on business owners who might not have seen a bump this weekend. I think there was an assumption that simply having tens of thousands of people in town would’ve spilled into all areas of the economy – but unless you sold BBQ, you still needed to go out and get customers. This is Marketing 101. You can’t just assume putting out a shingle would get everyone to gravitate to you. In the age of social media, there’s really no excuse for getting that message out.
Sure, businesses within a few blocks of Union Station would have done really well, but if you needed to drive or walk more than a few blocks, you needed a reason to get that traffic there. No better example of this than Parkville’s Al’s Bar off of Tom Watson Parkway. Al’s has arguably the best chicken wings in town, but is off the beaten path several miles off of I-29. You have to WANT to go to Al’s on most days. But what Al’s also had going for it this past weekend was that it has long been a Buffalo Bills bar. The place was packed. And if people drove the 15 or so minutes up to Parkville, there’s no reason your restaurant on the north end of the downtown loop saw no traffic.
And outside of downtown, I personally witnessed bars and restaurants last weekend that were packed with “locals” who knew not to go downtown for fear of traffic and congestion, but still wanted a drink or a cheeseburger.
Offer 10% off your order if you wear a football shirt. How about a buy one get one free discount on your first bucket of beers. Coupons. Prizes. Something to get people to your place. If you need examples, check out Guy’s Snacks on Twitter. They now run three restaurants along with their line of snacks and generate buzz that keeps them busy all weekend. There is a Taco Trail in Kansas City, Kan. that offers prizes to anyone who visits all the taco restaurants in the month of May. This type of marketing is necessary in this day and age when you need to encourage people to visit your place.
Certainly, the city and local chambers of commerce have work to do in this area, but the responsibility mainly falls on the owners of the business. If you didn’t see customers this past weekend, don’t look to the NFL, the city, or the fans. Just look in the mirror.
(Get more from Chris Kamler on Twitter, where you’ll find him masquerading as @TheFakeNed)