Local bars worry canceled football season will devastate their already hurting business

Reporter: Nicole Lauren
Published: Updated:
College football. Photo via CBS Sports

Saturdays are about to change for many college football fans as the pandemic forced the Big Ten and Pac-12 to postpone all fall sports.

While fans are bummed, businesses that are already hurting expect it to get worse.

Sports bars like Shoeless Joe’s are used to seeing crowds pile in through the doors to watch college games.

They estimate that in one day alone they bring in about $7,000 to $10,000.

The big moneymaker for them is Ohio State because they’re the main hub for the local chapter of the Ohio State Alumni Association.

The general manager of the Crown Plaza where the sports bar is located, Jim Larkin, said this will be a hard loss to recover from and they hope to see sports pick back up again.

“We will be certainly looking forward to when we can get sports back in a full-time capacity because even now with sports being played without fans, it had somewhat of an impact. There seems to be less enthusiasm about coming out to watch games,” Larkin said.

In an attempt to save the season, players started using the hashtags “We want to play” and “We are united.” As of now, the Big 10 hopes to play football this spring.

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