Owners and managers of popular Marshall Street businesses say they are hopeful the postseason ban on the Syracuse men’s basketball team won’t have a large affect on sales.

The men’s basketball team draws large crowds for three staples of Marshall Street — Varsity Pizza, Manny’s and Shirt World— and all three are hoping business will remain steady.

“The real supporters of the team, they come out,” said Bill Nester, a manager at Manny’s.

Varsity Pizza manager Diana Hester said Varsity has not experienced any lull in business with the announcement of the self-imposed postseason ban. Many fans come in to Varsity to watch the game or before home games.

“Our business has been fine. It’s been a little quieter but I think it’s just because of the snow,” she said. She added that regardless of the ban or the “not-so-great” season SU is having, “attendance is still extremely good.”

Dave Jacobs, the owner and manager of Shirt World and a former All-American placekicker for SU, said the store doesn’t know what to expect for future business. With SU continuing regular season play until March 7, Nester, Jacobs and Hester could not exactly predict how the ban would affect business.

As the SU men’s basketball team moves into the tougher section of its schedule, Jacobs said he remains excited about both the season and potential sales. Nester said business is looking “very promising” for Manny’s, explaining that with some of the best teams in the country scheduled to play in the Dome, Manny’s expects to see a lot of fans of those teams.

Last year, SU set a record crowd with 35,446 in attendance for the Feb. 1 Duke University game. This year, Syracuse is scheduled to face Duke Saturday, and while the crowd isn’t expected to be quite as large as last year, all three managers are optimistic about business in the short-term.

And while SU’s team won’t play in the postseason, SU fans will be able to experience tournament play through the East Regional section of the NCAA Tournament, which will be hosted by the Carrier Dome on March 27 and 29.

Jacobs said while the Dome hosts the East Regional is exciting, “it depends on who’s going to come.” He said Shirt World is still in the process of deciding whether or not it will sell merchandise of the teams that come to the Dome for the tournament.

All three said Marshall Street businesses remain optimistic about sales and are excited to provide quality products to SU students, the greater Syracuse community and fans from beyond Syracuse.

“Everybody loves coming here,” Hester, the manager of Varsity, said. “We try to keep everything very traditional, it’s what people expect and what they like, and we’re ready here to serve them.”

Published on February 12, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Danny: dmantoot@syr.edu