Yogi's in downtown Bloomington will have a different feel to it this fall without the Hoosiers playing football on Saturdays.
(Ethan Burks, WFIU/WTIU News)
The Big Ten became the first Power 5 conference to postpone its fall sports season Tuesday, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The local economy likely will take a massive hit without thousands of fans visiting Bloomington for home football games.
“When you own and run an IU bar and IU’s not playing, it’s just not the same,” said Chris Martin, director of operations at Yogi’s Bar and Grill.
Yogi’s is one of Bloomington’s quintessential college sports bars. It opens early on gamedays when fans pack-in to watch the football pregame shows.
“All our hotels are full. Every restaurant is full,” Martin said. “I mean when teams like Ohio State roll into town, sometimes you start getting busy on Wednesday for a Saturday evening game.”
Last year, the Hoosiers drew just over 41,000 fans to its six games at Memorial Stadium.
A 2018 visitor profile study conducted by Visit Bloomington found sports fans spend an average of $158 per night when they come to Bloomington.
“Nothing is going to replace football. It’s just not. It’s the biggest revenue generator,” said Mike McAfee, Visit Bloomington executive director. “That’s why it’s so important for the universities as well because you’re having those massive crowds with that type of spending power.”
McAfee said it’s estimated that Monroe County visitors spend a total of $80 million during the months of September and October. He said the No. 1 expenditure among football fans are food and beverages.
“IU hosted four home football games total in September and October of 2019. The one percent countywide food and beverage tax generated $609,000 during those two months,” McAfee said.
Now that football will not be bringing in that kind of revenue this fall, Martin said he’s worried that some of the college students who work in bars and restaurants could be out of a job.
“There’s going to be a lot of college kids that might not be able to continue to afford to go to school at IU because they’re not going to have a job that will support them,” Martin said.
The Big Ten said it will consider moving games to the spring semester.
"This is where the work continues," Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said after Tuesday’s decision. "We will look toward the future and continue to allow the medical information that we have to guide our decisions."
But in the meantime, Martin said they won’t know for sure how this affects the service industry economically until they endure a fall without football.
