New Orleans’ Super Bowl LIX was expected to bring in wins not just for the Eagles or Chiefs but for some of The Big Easy’s small and Black-owned businesses.
However, they missed out, Fox 8 Live reports.
Prior to the biggest game of the football season, the NFL listed more than 120 local businesses on the official New Orleans visitor guide to ramp up support across the city. But expectations were busted as fans and celebrities flooded in
, especially in the iconic French Quarters.2 Phat Vegans restaurant owner Corey Mathis thought his business would cash out in a huge way because of the Super Bowl, but the foot traffic wasn’t all that. Despite welcoming tourists, food delivery orders, and New England Patriots defensive end Deatrich Wise Jr., business was slow. Mathis’ business was one of several left off of the NFL’s list.
“A lot of people don’t go out and blow all their money out on the first night,” Mathis said. “When you see the big hoopla and all the stuff going on, you would think it would be bigger.”
With the city’s hotel capacity reaching 100%, Mathis and other business owners were dismayed that fans failed to disperse around the neighborhood. French Market merchant Dana Tharp sells T-shirts and hoodies and figured fans would flood her shop. Instead, she said it was locals that showed out more.
“If I was selling NFL gear, I would have done real good. But not my own stuff,” Tharp said. “This is a Super Bowl crowd, so they spent most of their time at Super Bowl events.”
Some owners blamed heightened security as a barrier to good business as restricted zones dampened some fun, according to WDSU.
“It took away a little bit of the French Quarter vibe, you know, to see all those soldiers on every corner,” French Quarter employee Harley Field said. “It was just a different vibe, and I don’t know if it impacted visitors if they saw it or what they thought about it, but for me, it was a little bit jarring.”
Traffic was another concern—and a deterrent. Between detours and closures, cars stood still for hours. Rhonda Findley, co-owner of Pop City, said her business did much better pop icon when Taylor Swift (girlfriend of Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce) held a three-day tour stop in NOLA.
Findley is hoping that the concerns of business owners will be heard by city leaders before the next major event.
“It’s not just, ‘Let’s get them into the Superdome and get them out,’” she said. “We need to get them into the Superdome, on Magazine Street, walking the streets of the French Quarter from Canal Street all the way to Esplanade, and everywhere else where they can really experience New Orleans.”
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