Trent Hagerman, senior, won’t be attending the football game this Thanksgiving weekend. The game will be played at Arrowhead stadium in Kansas City and he doesn’t want to pay the gas and food bills to make the trip.
KU’s biggest rivals, the Missouri tigers, won’t be coming to town this year and neither will all the shoppers and diners that attend football games. The neutral Kansas City location will affect business for many merchants in the Lawrence area.
“I don’t think it is good for Lawrence to have the game in Kansas City,” Hagerman said, “No one will be in town to shop especially near the holidays.”
The Mizzou game is the last game of the season which makes it close to the holidays. While this could mean trouble for downtown stores, it’s another story for campus businesses.
Alecia Stultz, assistant director of Retail Dining Services, said, “They couldn’t have picked a better weekend for the game to be in Kansas City from our stance. The dining business is fickle and I won’t have to pay extra staff over the holiday weekend for the game.”
Although KU Dining services has been averaging about $200 dollars an hour in sales this year, the Mizzou game won’t deter their business that much. Stultz predicts people will go to the game and then leave town soon for the holidays. She doesn’t think Dining Service will suffer much damage that weekend.