When Hakim Warrick made his now-famous block to seal last year’s NCAA Tournament victory for Syracuse University, Bill Nester cheered alongside the rest of the Orangemen faithful.

Then he sighed.

Nester, one of the owners of Manny’s, a Syracuse apparel retailer, knew how much work the win meant for his Marshall Street business.

Nester and the rest of the Manny’s employees arrived at the store at 6:30 the next morning to unload the championship gear and stock shelves in time for the store’s 9 a.m. opening.

‘There were people there before we got to the store,’ Nester said.

Business had been booming because of the men’s basketball team’s earlier tournament successes, and, though Nester had expected business to intensify, the line that would eventually stretch beyond the street corner was an intimidating sight.

‘We were tired,’ Nester said. ‘Everybody was worn out from the Final Four week. We were so happy for the team, but I can’t say that we were looking forward to working another week 6:30 to 10:30 with only about one meal per day.’

The line outside the store moved slowly and remained for more than a week after the championship game. Manny’s was only able to allow 30 customers in the store at a time, meaning no customers could enter until others had already left.

‘It was about a three-week period that we were just nonstop,’ Nester said. ‘Forget your days off. We worked seven days a week.’

Only once graduation had passed did the customer flow return to a more bearable pace.

While apparel stores like Manny’s expect to see an increase in business as a result of the Syracuse athletics successes, other shops on Marshall Street are equally as affected by these performances.

‘It definitely affects business up on the Hill,’ said Jerry Dellas, president of the Crouse-Marshall Business Association. ‘Especially when they’re winning.’

Dellas, whose family owns both Varsity Pizza and Faegans Caf and Pub, says that while restaurants in the Marshall Street area don’t reap the same benefits that apparel stores do, they still experience an increase in business.

‘Last year, we had quite an amazing year with them winning the national championship,’ he said. ‘At Varsity, we did better because those apparel places drew people up to the Hill. A lot of people from outside the community that aren’t normally in the university area were there for a week or two.’

A national championship only comes once in a blue moon, though. While such accomplishments certainly help the profit margins of these stores, retailers say that the overall success of the university’s athletic department is the true barometer of whether or not business will be good.

And because of the rich traditions behind many of SU’s sports teams, apparel stores like Manny’s are able to withstand consecutive down years from the football team.

‘Football stuff always sells,’ Nester said. ‘It’s a very traditional team that’s been around forever, over 100 years. It’s a steady year-round business for football.’

Profits aren’t only to be evaluated on a season-by-season basis, but a game-by-game one as well. Both Nester and Dellas say that their most profitable days are those on which a game is played.

‘You’ve got to have home games here to really see an increase in business,’ Nester said. ‘The more home games the better. Any time you get 20,000 people up here, if you can get one percent of them in your store, then you’re golden.’

‘Whenever there’s Dome events, it’s good for the Hill, no question about it,’ Dellas said. ‘Any Dome event, even high school events. The only time it doesn’t help much is when we’re having a lousy season and a lousy team comes in to play.’

Any time a marquee opponent comes into town – good season or not – Nester says he expects business to increase.

‘I expect to sell a lot this upcoming weekend with Connecticut here,’ he said. ‘Even visiting teams, a lot of their customers come in to pick up Syracuse merchandise. It’s more or less a souvenir item. ‘Yeah, I was at Syracuse. Yeah, I was at this game. Yeah, I was at this great store, Manny’s.’ It’s a tradition, actually, for the visiting team to pick up an item while they’re here.’

Dellas says he also pays close attention to sports schedules. When the crowds are big in the dome, he says, the crowds are big in his restaurants. And he needs to make sure Varsity and Faegan’s are amply staffed on important game days.

Some business owners on Marshall Street say the onslaught of customers on game days aren’t always a good thing. These retailers argue that when people come up for games, they only stop by the apparel shops, restaurants and bars.

‘Sometimes I do some sales,’ said Joni Hamilton, owner of Hamilton’s Floral Garden, ‘but basically it hurts me because the normal people that might come in and buy things would avoid the area because of the traffic and the crowd.’

These business find their largest problem in the lack of parking in the Marshall Street area. With customers unable to find parking spots, business drops at these stores.

‘When you have 50,000 people coming to an event, it eliminates any on-street parking,’ said Dominick Garbo, owner of Garbo’s Hair, Nail & Tanning Studio.

Dellas argues that, though exposure to fans hasn’t helped other stores as much as much as it has his and Nester’s, it can’t help but increase business.

‘If you’ve got people in the area, it can’t hurt,’ he said. ‘The lady that owns the flower shop, maybe her business isn’t affected, but you never know. There could be a customer that just walks by there going to get a shirt who goes ‘Oh, I didn’t realize there was a florist up here.”

Brian Shepard, a senior economics and policies major, agrees. After the national championship win, Shepard, like many SU students, ran down to Marshall Street to be a part of the post-game melee. This celebration and the rush for championship apparel can only help business, he said.

‘People see restaurants,’ Shepard said. ‘Even if they’re not hungry, just the sight of the restaurant helps. Being the front street for the university, people are going to go down there anyways. And they might see stuff that they like in the window.’

But such retailers say that this exposure isn’t all its cracked up to be. While people come from far and wide to attend university athletic events and spend time in the Marshall Street area, rarely do they enter stores that don’t offer food, drink or the Syracuse brand name. The area may get crowded, but there isn’t necessarily an influx in business.

‘The best thing you can have is a lot of (foot) traffic in front of your store, even if they don’t come in,’ said John Vavalo, owner of J Michael Shoes. ‘If they come in, they don’t buy much usually. I get exposure, but they’re not buying that day because they don’t want to haul it back to their car.

‘Maybe they see something before the game and then think ‘Maybe I’ll stop by after the game.’ But usually people love to get to their car and get the hell out of here.’

Nonetheless, Dellas says that it is impossible for the increase in numbers of customers on Marshall Street to not help stores like J Michael.

‘Just with the presence of more people up there because of athletics, some of those people have to take notice of the other shops,’ Dellas said.

Yet Vavalo maintains that people don’t take notice and that the national championship did nothing to help his shop.

‘That was good for the whole city,’ Vavalo said. ‘It’s a catch-22. We need it and we love it, but sometimes it really isn’t the best thing for our business.’

Published on September 19, 2004 at 12:00 pm