Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 17, 1995 TAG: 9501170115
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BUFFALO, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
They're suiting up in hockey towns across the continent: the bartenders and peanut vendors, the ticket takers and hot-dog makers.
It's not just the owners, the players and fans who lost out on the hockey lockout that's finally ended. A lot of people lost a chunk of their livelihood.
``It was a tight Christmas. It was a tight insurance-is-due season,'' said Sandy Agel, who had to take part-time work at a department store to replace her better-paying job as an usher at Buffalo Sabres games.
``The strike has just devastated business for us,'' said Lynn Foran, manager of Sweetwater's restaurant, a hangout for Detroit Red Wings fans.
Besides bars, restaurants and other postgame hangouts, the 103-day lockout stung concessionaires, parking lot owners, ticket agencies and sportswear shops, all the fringe businesses that depend on people passing through hockey turnstiles.
The truncated, 48-game schedule settled on by players and owners, which starts Friday, will help recoup some losses.
``Forty-some games is better than nothing,'' said George Bigliardi, owner of Bigliardi's Restaurant near Maple Leaf Gardens, home of the Toronto Maple Leafs. ``It's better than a kick in the butt.''
Bigliardi said he lost thousands of dollars in business for each Toronto home game that was canceled.
Sales are off by as much as two-thirds at Showcase, a sportswear shop owned by former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski near the Spectrum where the Flyers play, said manager Chris Custodio.
``It's been way down without hockey,'' Custodio said. ``I'm very happy they're playing again. I would just like to have baseball playing, too.''
While thousands of seasonal workers whose jobs depend on hockey are heading back to work, they're grumbling that it took so long for owners and players to strike a deal.
``There's some very irritable people,'' said Bob Kalman, who runs concessions at Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium, where up to 200 people a night lost work from canceled Sabres games. ``They feel they've been the forgotten people, the little guy who's been left out of it all.''
One of the biggest losers from the lockout has been concessionaire Delaware North Companies Inc. of Buffalo. Company vice president Samuel Gifford said Delaware North lost about $4 million in sales from concession stands it runs at arenas in Buffalo, Boston, Tampa and Edmonton.
The company also owns the Bruins and their arena, the Boston Garden, and has lost out on ticket sales there.
``We're a very healthy company, but it smarts,'' Gifford said. ``This kind of thing would be hurtful to any company.''
Hockey towns like Buffalo, whose downtown is mostly offices and shops that close at night, count on the games to bring some nightlife into the city.
``It's like a ghost town unless there's a game,'' said Bill Milks, an attendant at a parking lot near Memorial Auditorium.
The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, which runs subway trains that stop right beside Memorial Auditorium, lost about $2,500 in fares per game.
``We've still been running the trains, but we were wondering why no one was on them,'' agency spokesman Daryl Rasuli joked.
Garcia's Irish Pub, a block away from Memorial Auditorium, packs in hundreds of fans after Sabres games. The place has been nearly empty on nights when the Sabres would have had home games.
Manager Patrick Cuonze said he hired and trained about 80 extra bartenders and waiters last fall, then had to lay off most of them when the hockey season was delayed.
The bar lost up to $20,000 in business a night for each canceled Sabres game, Cuonze said.
``That's not just lost revenue for me,'' he said. ``That's my staff missing out on tips, money they could have had to spend in other places. This should have been our busiest time of the year.''
It's been a similar situation at Buttle's, a restaurant near Nassau Coliseum, where the New York Islanders play. Manager Joe Healey is counting on the pent-up energy and pocketbooks of hockey fans to make up for his losses.
``This partial season could be a benefit, because people will pay more attention to the games that are left,'' Healey said. ``People may try to put in a full season in less games. Maybe they'll buy a couple more drinks after a game, or some extra food. We're hoping for some good crowds.''
by CNB