NFL Draft blew an ill wind for some Kansas City shops and restaurants: Business stunk
Of all the bad numbers that Stephanie Herbig can quote from the NFL Draft — like the $50 parking that she thinks Crown Center was crazy to charge, or how three days of sales at her dress shop, Cheeky Bird, were down as much as 60% — the most startling may be this:
$32.32.
On Thursday, the first and easily most jammed of the three-day extravaganza — when some 125,000 fans crammed elbow-to-elbow outside Kansas City’s Union Station and the National World War I Museum and Memorial — $32.32 was the shop’s total day’s receipts.
“I mean, that was the lowest Thursday of the entire month of April,” Herbig said Monday, still miffed at how the NFL Draft, promoted to be a business boon, ended up, at least for some, being a massive bust.
To be sure, many shop and restaurant owners report that the event, held from noon Thursday through Saturday evening, was a stunning business success, meeting and topping all expectations. Twenty local restaurants inside the NFL Draft fan festival, where sodas went for $5 and beers for $13, saw long lines.
In Westport, three miles south of Union Station, the clothing shop Bunker, which specializes in KC gear, said sales were up 20% to 30%.
Akiah Rector, a shift leader at the Filling Station Coffee, at 29th and McGee Trafficway, reported sales up 30% to 40%. On 31st Street, Tyler Humar of Brick House KC restaurant and bar said business was tremendous.
“It was unreal, man,” he said. “We were busy from open to close all four days.”
‘Pretty bummed’
But over the weekend, an Instagram post from Cafe Cà Phê, located some 3.5 miles north of Union Station in Columbus Park, opened a floodgate of criticism from dozens of disappointed local businesses after the Vietnamese coffee shop reported its slowest weekend since opening eight months ago.
“We didn’t think we would get any extra business from this weekend,” the shop posted, “but we certainly didn’t expect to see literally NOBODY at our shop during peak hours.”
Replying to that post, Mildred’s coffee shop said its location near hotels and the draft site brought in some business. But the number of regular customers dipped, and so did overall sales.
“We’re all pretty bummed in the lackluster results of this event,” Mildred’s wrote.
Mean Mule Distilling in the Crossroads turned down private events to prepare for massive crowds. The business said the draft’s “hype scared many of our regulars away.”
Home goods store RE: in the Crossroads called the draft “a horrible mess.” It cited closed streets for poorer than expected sales. “Literally heart broken for all of us,” the store wrote.
Freestyle Poke, which had planned a banner week at its River Market restaurant and a new one in downtown Overland Park, said it was reexamining how it plans for large events. “The Super Bowl Parade did nothing for us either,” the shop posted. “Will World Cup?”
The deluge of disappointment was enough that Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas even weighed in, casting blame at the media.
The mayor said he had gone out eating and shopping each day of the draft. Many businesses, he noted, saw a bump in sales. But other downtown spots got shorted, he said, because of media coverage that “made it seem like downtown was an impossible to get through madhouse, which it really wasn’t.”
“A lot of things to improve. Some successes,” the mayor wrote in response to the Instagram post. “Doing big things needs to be a reality our city gets used to, but we need to make sure we keep a balance going.”
Evan Ashby, co-owner of Mildred’s, said he was thrilled to see the draft in Kansas City. No one questions the impact on the city’s image, he said. But he was surprised that it dampened sales.
He compared the weekend to those times when the weather forecast calls for a massive snowstorm, but only a dusting falls.
“I feel like we trusted the weatherman a little too much,” he said. “The weatherman was telling us to prepare for Snowpocalypse 2023.”
Officials with Visit KC had promised the draft would infuse $100 million into the local economy through the purchase of hotel rooms, meals and merchandise. With total attendance tabulated at 312,000 fans, slightly higher than the number predicted, officials on Monday expected to still hit that figure.
Elliott Scott, spokesman for the Kansas City Sports Commission, said many local businesses “did very well,” including food vendors inside the draft grounds and businesses that were awarded contracts for the event.
“Our focus, as the local organizing committee, was on the event itself,” Scott told The Star. “We are not in a position to assess a business’s performance. There are many variables including location, product and whether they marketed in advance or during the Draft.”
The cost of parking
Managers and owners of a number of Crown Center shops recognized that their situation may have been unique.
Herbig, of Cheeky Bird, blamed neither the NFL Draft nor the city for her slump. She felt the decision at Crown Center to charge $50 for parking kept customers away.
Crown Center spokeswoman Anne Deuschle on Monday said they were aware that some merchants were unhappy about low sales during the draft. She said that although the company understands that some vendors blame the cost of parking, she opted not to discuss the company’s parking decision.
Several other Crown Center shops, including a restaurant and gift store near Herbig’s boutique, said their business also dropped by half, or more. Amit Gambhir, manager of Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant, did not reveal how slow business was during the draft, except to say, “It was bad. It was not even our regular business.”
Kevin Giles, manager of Initial, a shop that features designer sneakers, said the business was not at all what they expected.
“It was terrible. … Crown Center had prepped us to be super packed,” he said. They and other businesses had brought on more staff. After the first day of disappointing sales, many were allowed to leave early.
Katie Mabry van Dieren thought her Shop Local KC would do well on the second floor of the mall, where customers come in from the Crown Center hotels and parking garages using The Link. She had stocked up on inventory from local artists.
“It was just a real big letdown,” she said. “I would say hundreds of thousands of people walked right by and didn’t come in.
“I love that the draft was here. I’m not complaining. I’m just so shocked that all of my local friends that own businesses — we have all felt the same thing — I could not understand after all the hullabaloo how this could be happening.”
Even Sheridan’s Custard & Lattes, with long lines on any normal day, saw a slump. Lines often stretch far during major events like the beer, music and food festival Boulevardia, or the Irish Festival. The custard shop also brought on extra staff, but ended up canceling their shifts.
“We sent people home, or we let them go enjoy the draft,” said manager Cassie Morgan.
At least two Crown Center businesses had no complaints.
“We broke the store record by $5,000,” said Sean Terry, manager of Burnt Ends BBQ, which Terry said likely did well during the draft because it has an outdoor patio and bar on Grand Boulevard in the midst of foot traffic. It probably didn’t hurt that NFL Draft commentators from out of town raved about Kansas City barbecue.
Before Thursday, their single day sales record had been $20,000. On Thursday, they made $25,000. Where the restaurant normally has a single bartender working on a weekday, or two on Friday nights, they had as many as four.
On the second floor of Crown Center, Sportibles, which features Kansas City Chiefs and Royals gear, also did well.
“We were definitely pleased,” said owner David Walby, who conceded that, because the city had no past experience with the draft, there was no way to predict the sales.
His only comparison, he said, might have been the two Super Bowl parades. “At those times, the lines were out the door,” he said.
That did not occur during the draft, but sales were still better than normal.
“Our best day was Saturday,” Walby said, the day Crown Center dropped the $50 parking charge.
