With NFL owners and players unable to reach a labor agreement and the 2011 NFL season in jeopardy, the owners of five Beef ‘O’ Brady’s restaurants in Florida and Mississippi are hoping a free beer promotion will perk up distressed NFL fans.
The free beer promotion kicked off last Friday at 4 p.m. with 35 minutes of free Bud Light — the official beer of the NFL.
The 35 minutes signify a minute for each day that has passed since March 11, when the 32 NFL team owners declared a player lockout and the National Football League Players Association decertified to pursue legal action. Both sides can’t agree on how to split annual revenue of $9 billion.
The five Beef ‘O’ Brady’s restaurants add a minute every day for the free beer for each day that there is no labor agreement. On Tuesday, for example, customers drank free Bud Light for 39 minutes at the five participating restaurants.
The Tampa, Fla.-based family sports pub chain has 217 sites in 23 states.
“Everybody is stressing about the lockout and whether we’ll have a season,” said Stacy Thunelius, owner of two Beef ‘O’ Brady stores in Gulfport and D’Iberville, Miss.
The free beer promotion was the brainchild of Pat Perno, part owner of three Florida Gulf Coast Beef ‘O’ Brady’s restaurants in Callaway, Lynn Haven and Panama City Beach.
“I feel their pain,” Perno said. “I sympathize and empathize with our football lovers.”
While the restaurants currently are having fun with the free beer promotion, Thunelius said the prospect of no NFL football games in the fall would bring hard times for her two Beef ‘O’ Brady’s restaurants.
She estimated sales would plummet 20 percent to 30 percent without an NFL season because the New Orleans Saints games are so popular and a big draw for her business.
“[The losses] would be huge for us if we don’t have the NFL season,” Thunelius said. “Football season is our biggest season.”
About 15 customers drank free beer on the first day of the promotion and the restaurant has gone through about a half a keg so far, Thunelius said.
Kip “The Budman” Schloegel, the Budweiser distributor for three Gulf Mississippi counties, said the free beer promotion is drawing a lot of free publicity in local media.
“We’ll give free beer until they give up or we give up,” Schloegel said.
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s may consider the free beer promotion at other restaurant locations, said Patrick Roach, a spokesman for the sports pub chain. “It’s a quirky, fun promotion.”
Casual dining operators are following the NFL work stoppage because many generate revenue from traffic during the NFL season, which lasts from September to early February.
Buffalo Wild Wings, for example, debuted TV spots during the NCAA college basketball tournament last month with tags that asked viewers to visit the brand’s Facebook page and add their names to the online petition to “save our season.”
Contact Alan Snel at [email protected].
CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story state the name of the beer served for the promotion as "Bud Lite."
