00:00 Speaker A

Well the Knicks historic championship run has fans and businesses alike feeling the buzz.

00:07 Speaker A

have significant, in your opinion, has it already been, even now. Like how how much of a business boost has it meant for the hospitality industry? What are you seeing? What are you hearing?

00:18 Dorothy

We’re seeing a lot of different things happen right now with hospitality venues on Long Island because of this.

00:27 Dorothy

There has been many restaurants that are doing watch parties or doing specials with their food and beverage to get more patrons in.

00:36 Dorothy

But I’ll tell you, um, getting more patrons in doesn’t seem to be a problem right now.

00:43 Speaker A

What are the kinds of businesses that benefit the most, Dorothy from something like this? Is it bars? Is it uh restaurants, hotels?

00:50 Dorothy

Right now, it’s it’s all of the above, but I can tell you it’s restaurants and bars, especially sports bars. They’re really bringing in the patrons. There’s lines sometimes to get into these restaurants. Uh the watch parties are doing phenomenal, especially when they advertise on social media for these bars.

01:10 Dorothy

but even the hotels, the hotels are doing well and they have um restaurants or bars in the hotels that are doing themed drinks and themed cocktails and they’re having um watch parties and specials.

01:25 Dorothy

Honestly, even fine dining, they’re doing packages now with dinner and cigar bars to uh watch the games.

01:33 Speaker A

Let’s spin ahead, Dorothy. Let’s see the Knicks actually win this thing, then what? How much bigger do you think the economic impact could be?

01:42 Dorothy

Economically, it’s been great, but I think if they win, there’ll be even more celebrations, um, more hospitality businesses that are going to benefit from this.

01:53 Dorothy

And it’s just the way that this has played out for us here in New York and Long Island benefiting from this on the hospitality side. Revenue-wise, it’s been a great impact.

02:06 Dorothy

There’s been bars that typically midweek, they’re a little bit slow, but because of the when the games come on, it’s bringing in business that’s usually not there. We’re hiring extra staff. We’re opening up um some of the restaurants and bars on nights like Monday nights that we typically uh wouldn’t even have any type of um patrons come in on a high volume.

02:27 Dorothy

It’s been great. and I think looking forward, if the Knicks keep going, go Knicks, it’s going to be even better.