To Ulysses Demby’s way of thinking, late is great.
Count Demby, manager of Lawrence’s Set’Em Up Jacks, among the restaurant and bar operators who are pleased with tonight’s late tipoff of Kansas University’s first-round NCAA Tournament game.
Demby loves the fact that the game likely won’t get started until about 9 p.m. and that it is on a Friday night, a traditional door-buster for the bar industry.
“It is going to be huge,” Demby said. “This is what all sports bars in Lawrence live for.”
Demby expects Set’Em Up Jacks, 1800 E. 23rd St., to be overflowing with about 400 people by 6:30 p.m. as they wait for the game to begin.
“For us, the later the better,” Demby said. “Sometimes people can’t get off work for those day games.”
Not all bar operators agree. Jeff Johnson, general manager of The Yacht Club, 530 Wis., said he would have preferred a daytime slot.
“On a Friday night, we’re going to be busy whether there is a game or not,” Johnson said.
“If we would have gotten the 12 o’clock game on Thursday or Friday that would have been pretty nice. It is a nice spring day and a lot of people would have skipped work and gone to the bar all day.”
Still, nobody in the bar business is complaining. Anytime the Jayhawks are playing in the tourney, business is bound to be good. Demby estimated that tonight’s sales would be double what the bar makes on a usual Friday night.
Luke Lawlor, a manager at JB Stouts Sports Bar and Grill, 721 Wakarusa Drive, said the tournament was a significant help for his business.
“You definitely notice it at the end of the month,” Lawlor said.
The benefits go beyond just the sales made on game day, he said.
“If they go on and win Sunday’s game, that will be great because people will be in a good mood all week and they’ll be more likely to go out to eat and drink during the week,” Lawlor said.
