ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — When you’ve owned a place in Orchard Park for 22 years like Mark Ebeling, you know what the start of the Bills season brings.
“I estimate 10,000 people walk by this building on a football Sunday,” said Ebeling, the owner of Danny’s, a restaurant in Orchard Park. “I don't even know how many come in. We lost track.”
Ebeling has spent all week preparing his restaurant for the start of the season, which sees a 40% uptick in business on game days.
“It's a night and day difference in business,” Ebeling. “If the Bills win, everybody wins.”
Just up the street and on the other side of the stadium sits another winner, O’Neill’s Stadium Inn, but owner Peggy Cerrone said she didn’t realize how much better they were doing until she recently looked at the numbers.
“It's now that we're realizing, after we're in full swing, what we lost two years ago through COVID,” she said.
Cerrone says one-third of her restaurant’s yearly revenue comes from the nine Bills home games each year.
For these business owners, Monday night’s home opener is just the start of a fruitful period ahead.
“I think the next five years are going to be the biggest thing ever because once they start building that stadium, we're all golden here,” Ebeling said.
“My coolers are stocked with beer and chicken wings, and we're hoping for the best,” Cerrone said.