LOUISVILLE, Ky. — While Thursday's Kentucky-Louisville game outcome wasn't what Cardinals fans were hoping for, downtown Louisville businesses certainly saw a win.
As a sea of red and blue converged on the KFC Yum! Center for the game, restaurants in the central business district were already wrapping up a lucrative night.
"We appreciate the big nights; we want as many big nights throughout the year as we can get," George Timmering, co-owner of Bearno's Pizza, said.
Newly opened Nic and Norman's comes to Louisville by way of Lexington, bringing in hundreds of Cats fans and, some, Cards fans too.
"Right now, we're exactly where we want to be," Ryan Patton, manager at Nic & Norman's, said. "So there's a lot of folks that already heard of us before they came here."
One block away at Bearno's Pizza, Thursday night's crowd was reminiscent of big games-past.
"Nights like this are why you want to be in downtown Louisville, why you want to be near the Yum! Center," Timmering said. "It almost has the feel that UK is playing in the NCAA tournament or something, because we've had that experience several times down here."
For the long-established restaurant and Timmering, the Card's struggles winning games and filling seats, this season, have put a dent in the business.
"Yeah it's definitely been down," he said. "That arena holds over 20,000 people and it hasn't had 20,000 people there for any game yet this year."
It may go hand-in-hand with the city's ongoing struggle to expand foot traffic downtown, beyond its booming tourism.
"We wish it was more red [UofL fans] than blue [UK fans] down here," Timmering said.
It comes as city officials' are focused on surging activity in the business district, still recovering from pandemic-stalls in business.
Even so, Thursday's large crowds pleased businesses.
"We don't depend on the Yum! Center to bring in business for us; it's kind of icing on the cake," Timmering said.
Of course, both restaurants said they still encourage more people to funnel to downtown more often.
"Would we like more local support at lunch time? Would we like more downtown workers? Absolutely," Timmering said. "Would we like more Louisvillians -- on a random Friday night, when nothings going on -- to say 'Hey, let's go downtown?' Yes."
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