Booming business
Washington businesses dish up food, goodwill at NFL Draft
“There is no other place in the world where you could have had more exposure,” said James Bendel, owner of Crazy Horse Coffee, a veteran-owned Washington County coffee shop that was among the Washington County businesses selected by the NFL as vendors for last weekend’s NFL Draft held in Pittsburgh.
According to the NFL, an estimated 805,000 people attended the April 23-25 event. (The NFL’s count of people is an aggregate, so if a single person attends the draft all three days, they are counted three times.)
While small business owners in the city reported mixed results from the influx of football fans, the lines were long and the atmosphere was festive for vendors set up inside Point State Park and inside the NFL Draft area adjacent to Acrisure Stadium.
Crazy Horse Coffee teamed up with up Pretzels Plus at the a spot at the Stage AE parking next to Acrisure Stadium to offer coffee, cold brews, pretzel bites and muffins, and P’s Bird Wagon cooked up chicken tenders and sides at Point State Park.
“It couldn’t have been any more successful than I had planned it. I was happy with how everything went,” said Bendel, operates shops in Washington, McMurray, and Southpointe. “We had a lot of people get hooked on Crazy Horse cold brew. We went through a lot of it. We got to put our name out in front of a lot of people who had never heard of us before.”
Anastasia Barr-Whiteman, co-owner of Preztels Plus, said the excitement from being a part of the NFL Draft hasn’t worn off yet, and she is optimistic the exposure her store received during the draft will result in long-term benefits.
Earlier this week, she received a call from a company in Cincinnati that is hosting a conference and wants to place an order for pretzels for attendees.
“(The draft) was the biggest thing we’ve ever done, and you hope you do OK, that you do a good job. It was definitely an eye-opening experience, and there were opportunities for us,” said Barr-Whitman. “And it’s already had a lot of local impact because everyone is walking in asking, ‘How was the draft?’ and saying they saw us in the newspaper or on Facebook. It’s been a fun talking point. We’re seeing people we never saw before.”
Jeff Patterson, co-owner of P’s Bird Wagon, a family-run soul food truck based in Washington, called the event “a great experience.”
“I was in the back cooking, so I didn’t get to see much, but just being a part of it was a great opportunity,” said Patterson. “My family and crew stepped it up and handled everything. I was proud of them.”
Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Tourism and Promotion Agency, sees the success of the draft as an opportunity to increase the number of people who visit the region long-term.
“Overall, the positive media coverage the NFL Draft provided the Greater Pittsburgh region was immeasurable. It showcased a vibrant, growing, and transformed area much to the contrary of how the region is typically portrayed by national media outlets or even the perception of the U.S. population,” said Kotula. “Washington County will certainly benefit from the positive coverage in terms of future business investment and tourism attraction as well as the desirability of our county as a great place to live and raise a family.”
He said hotels in Washington County, especially those along the Interstate 79 corridor, reported an increase in stays over those days, averaging a healthy 75% to 80% occupancy.
But, he noted, it will be hard to determine if those numbers are directly attributable to the draft.
“Through our research last year of similarly located counties around Green Bay and Detroit – the sites of the last two NFL drafts – we knew going in that visitors to our county were here to experience the events in downtown Pittsburgh. We positioned ourselves to take advantage of their time away from the festivities, provided a welcoming stay for them, and encouraged them to explore our county while they were here,” said Kotula.
The local businesses who took part in the draft are continuing to reflect on the event, what they did well, and what they can learn from it.
Patterson said challenges included keeping up with the orders placed by hungry fans who packed into Point State Park, and making sure he did not run out of food and supplies.
“Every once in a while, when lines were long, some people didn’t have such a good vibe, but people understood that there were a lot of people, lines were going to be long, and most people were very nice,” said Patterson.
Preparation was important for such a large-scale event, and Patterson said he was ready.
“Things had to be done beforehand that most events don’t require. We really had to step up preparation. We had plenty of food; we didn’t run out. It was satisfying to know that we could all come together, my family and crew, and do something of this size. We worked together, we handled it,” said Patterson.
He said other vendors were supportive of each other, and he even gave a vendor one of his extra propane tanks when the vendor ran out and didn’t have a spare.
Bendel and Barr-Whiteman said collaboration among small businesses is a good model to follow.
“Honestly, it was a cool collaborative effort between small businesses that we took to a big crowd. One of the best things to come out of this was working with Crazy Horse. We really were small businesses doing big business,” said Barr-Whiteman, who plans to offer Crazy Horse cold brew in her downtown Washington store. “This is something we will never forget. It’s something we will take with us in our business life and our lives.”