Westgate restaurants hoping to cash in on Arizona Cardinals training camp
Jul 28, 2014, 5:00 AM | Updated: 5:00 am
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Monday marks the third day of the Arizona Cardinals’ preseason training camp in Glendale, Ariz.
The practices are open to the public, and businesses near University of Phoenix Stadium are expecting to cash in.
It’s the second year that the Cardinals camp has been held in Glendale, but it’s the first for the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in the city’s Westgate Entertainment District.
“Last year we were not open. We opened just at the tail-end of (training camp),” said the restaurant’s general manager, Tony Sollars. “We’re actually really excited to get our first year with the training camp here.”
Sollars said the restaurant was open for business during the regular season, and that Cardinals home games were good for business.
“It increases business by about 20 to 30 percent [compared to non-game days],” said Sollars.
Westgate Development Director Jeff Teetsel said that while camp is going on, nearby restaurants see a boost in business for both lunch and dinner.
“With all of their practices being concentrated between 2 and 4:30 p.m., we certainly see fans arrive before they go to the stadium and then come to Westgate after they’ve attended,” Teetsell said.
And it may not be only fans who patron the Westgate restaurants.
“With the players staying at the Renaissance hotel next door, every now and again some of them may be walking around our property,” said Teetsel. “You never know when you might bump into them. When you’re in the line at Chipotle getting a burrito, you might be doing that next to one of the Cardinals players. It’s just kind of fun.”
