Saturday kickoff times mean either a good Friday night in the bars or for hotels

If you’re running a bar in downtown Lincoln on the Friday before a Nebraska football game, you want to see the kickoff at 2:30 p.m.

If you’re in the hotel business, you want to see that kickoff time at 11 a.m.

That’s how local business owners consider Husker eves, those Friday evenings before about 85,000 come downtown to fill Memorial Stadium on Saturdays.

Since most of Lincoln’s downtown hotels require a two-night stay during Husker weekend, Friday nights are usually hopping with out-of-towners and — if the game is big enough — plenty of locals.

“The Friday night before a football game, there’s a little more electricity in the air,” said Duffy’s Tavern owner Scott Hatfield. “It’s a pretty cheery night, there’s a game tomorrow and nobody’s mad about anything. Fridays are always our good nights.”

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It explains why Fridays are the busiest night of the week for downtown bars and restaurants.

Some Friday-night pregame traditions persist, like the Husker pep band making its way through hotels and restaurants, pep rally-type gatherings and meetings of the same bunch of friends at the same bars each Friday.

But, over the years, Friday night patterns have emerged based solely on the next day’s kickoff.

“If the kickoff time is at 11 a.m., Friday night is going to be pretty quiet and Saturday morning is going to be less than desirable,” Hatfield said. “The kickoff is so early that people don’t want to stay up late and they just don’t come down.”

It’s the opposite for the city’s hotels, who take a hit if the kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m., or even 7 p.m. the next day.

“If it’s a late game, Friday night, they don’t fill up,” said the Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Derek Feyerherm. “If it’s an 11 a.m. game, they’ll typically do pretty well.”

But their gain is the bars’ loss, he said.

“They’ll go to dinner and go back to the hotel,” Feyerherm said.

Lincoln’s restaurants are not impacted as much by the kickoff time. When people come to town, they go out to eat. That’s a constant. And the restaurants range from fast food to the best in town.

“Being a high-end restaurant, generally the Fridays before home games are better than the Saturdays of the games,” said Dish’s Marypat Heineman. “We do see an uptick on those Fridays. A large percentage of our guests tend to be from the visiting team, people who are on vacation and are getting into Lincoln early and have scoped us out.”

The visiting fans also make a big difference for bars. Upcoming opponents North Dakota and Georgia Southern won’t bring fans in the same numbers as, say, Minnesota or Wisconsin later in the season.

“Who we’re playing really has a big impact,” Hatfield said. “There are some teams that travel well and some that travel well with really great fans. Michigan fans are top notch.”

A group of friends shares a fishbowl at Duffy’s on O Street.

Journal Star file phot

Hatfield remembers the way USC fans traveled in droves to Lincoln in 2007. He also expects Oklahoma to be well-represented by its fan base Sept. 17 when the two teams play inside Memorial Stadium for the first time since 2009.

“That will be a good (Friday) night,” Hatfield said. “Even with an early kickoff.”

The influx of Oklahoma fans prompted Pinnacle Bank Arena to book Cody Johnson for a Friday night concert ahead of the big game.

More than 8,000 tickets have already been sold for Johnson’s show. 

“He’s just that popular right now,” said the arena’s Tom Lorenz. “There’s certainly some appeal there to have a Red Dirt country/Garth-type guy the night before.”

Regardless of the numbers for each game, the seven home game weekends generate important revenue – and create some premium prices – for downtown businesses.

“They’re definitely some of the biggest weekends and that drives very competitive hotel rates,” Feyerherm said. “You’ll see some very high prices for rooms on those weekends.”

That said, if Saturday’s debacle in Dublin is an indication of how the remainder of the 2022 season will go, there will likely be less joy in Huskerville on the Friday nights before home games, much less on game days.

“It really helps if they’re winning,” Hatfield said. “If they’re not, it kind of puts a damper on the whole weekend, even Friday nights, when they haven’t lost yet.”

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Reach the writer at 402-473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com. On Twitter @KentWolgamott  

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