Talk about March Madness. Try herding nearly 18,000 hungry basketball fans out of HSBC

Arena, into bars and restaurants as far away as Elmwood Avenue, feeding them dinner and drinks

and then getting them back into the game &#8212 all within an hour and a half.

That&#8217s the challenge Buffalo businesses and event organizers will face next weekend as

the city hosts the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament men&#8217s basketball games

Friday and next Sunday.

Friday, eight college teams will play two double headers with an intermission between both.

&#8220We will have a crunch time of about 90 minutes between both sessions. People will need

to be in and out quickly and that includes transportation,&#8221 said Michael Even, vice

president of sales at the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Coming to Buffalo?: A guide to Western New York for fans coming from out of town

Handling the major influx has taken years of preparation. But after hosting the games in

2000, 2004 and 2007, those involved have a pretty good handle on things.

The last time around, Pearl Street Grill and Brewery served 5,000 people in one day. This

year, it is expecting 8,000. To do it, they will have all four floors of the restaurant open,

plus its new Brawler&#8217s Back Alley Deli in the basement and a beer and food tent in the

parking lot which will serve 1,000. About 150 people will report for work at Pearl Street that

day &#8212 three times what would work the average Sabres game.

&#8220Let&#8217s put it this way, for the 2007 games, we had our biggest week ever, our

biggest day ever, our biggest payroll ever and we&#8217re expecting 30 percent more this

year,&#8221 said Bill Casale, Pearl Street&#8217s general manager. &#8220It has a huge

impact.&#8221

That economic impact is precisely the reason the CVB has lobbied to bring amateur sporting

events to Western New York. In 2007, the CVB estimates the games brought $4.5 million in

revenue. This year, it expects that number to rise to $5 million.

Quinn O&#8217Brien will experience his first March Madness this year as owner of

Benchwarmers, a one-year-old bar and restaurant on Mississippi Street near the arena.

&#8220It&#8217s a huge party from what I&#8217ve heard, people coming in and out all day in

their school colors,&#8221 said O&#8217Brien. &#8220And we&#8217re going to be ready for

it.&#8221

O&#8217Brien has hired two additional employees for the month of March, and will increase

all 12 employees from part-time to full time for Friday. For the average Sabres game,

Benchwarmers would stock about 30 cases of beer. But for the NCAA games, he will have 1,000

cases on hand.

&#8220We&#8217ve been working with our vendors at Try-It and Certo Bros. and we&#8217re

going to have two trucks out back to hold all the beer, because we just don&#8217t have the

storage,&#8221 said O&#8217Brien.

Nearby at Coca-Cola Field, Pettibones is expecting a bump in business, too. The restaurant

will ramp up staff, offer quick-and-easy buffet foods and open its Washington Street

concourses to serve food and drinks from the field&#8217s concession stands.

&#8220About 18,000 people will be leaving HSBC en masse. The arena doesn&#8217t serve beer

except in the suites &#8212 it&#8217s part of NCAA regulations &#8212 so people will be

looking for beer,&#8221 said Robert Free, director of food service operations for the Buffalo

Bisons. &#8220We&#8217ll have plenty of it.&#8221

For Coca-Cola Field, March Madness amounts to entirely new business, since the park

doesn&#8217t normally open for business until April.

&#8220We&#8217ll be going into the season ahead,&#8221 said Free.

Hotels will get a boost, too.

The Hyatt Regency downtown, which is acting as the NCAA&#8217s headquarters hotel, is

already booked solid, as is the Hampton Inn & Suites on Delaware Avenue. Teams, officials,

sponsors and the media alone will occupy 3,230 room nights in local hotels from March 17 to

March 21.

Michael Marsch, general manager at the Hyatt, said phones start &#8220ringing off the

hook&#8221 starting Selection Sunday (today) at 6 p.m., when it is announced which teams will

be playing where. Hotels downtown, such as the Adam&#8217s Mark, the Embassy Suites and the

Comfort Suites downtown said they typically staff additional people to answer those calls.

Once they get here, coordinating that many visitors involves some pretty sophisticated

planning.

The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority sent Metro schedules out to folks who ordered

tickets to the games, outlining bus, rail and trolley transportation that will be available

that day. The NFTA is adding shuttles and trolleys to carry people from the arena down to Main

Street, Franklin Street, Chippewa Street, Elmwood Avenue, Forest Avenue and back. Buffalo

police will assure the buses don&#8217t get stuck in traffic bottlenecks.

The NFTA is adding two more trains of three cars each to the five it would normally run for

Sabres games. Each of the seven trains will be able to hold 600 people. Wait times for trains

will be reduced from the typical 12 to 15 minutes to roughly eight to 10 minutes.

&#8220We&#8217ve got 90 minutes to move 18,000 people, and that&#8217s as long as the first

games don&#8217t go into overtime,&#8221 said Doug Hartmayer, a spokesman for the NFTA.

Helping the process along will be about 125 volunteers from AmeriCorps and B-Team Buffalo.

They&#8217ll be scattered outside the Arena and on Main and Washington Streets to give

directions and guide people toward places to eat. In addition, the CVB will run a

&#8220Twisitor Center&#8221 on Twitter (you can find it by searching #BuffHoops on

Twitter.com). Volunteers on the street will be giving real-time updates on who has the

shortest lines and which overly mobbed places might be best avoided.

Organizers have had to be careful not to infringe on NCAA trademarks, such as March

Madness, and have been warned not to use any licensed phrases or images in advertising.

&#8220NCAA has protected trademarks which are very expensive, and to be fair to its

sponsors they have to limit the use of it,&#8221 said Even of the CVB. &#8220Even our banners

say, &#8216Welcome to Buffalo, Basketball Fans.&#8221

Business owners said they appreciate the effort going into the event.

&#8220Any time there is an event booked downtown it gives us the opportunity as a small

business to staff more people and buy more food,&#8221 said Jenny Rossi, owner of City Grill

on Main Street. &#8220It&#8217s absolutely going to give us a boost.&#8221

Richard Pyszczek, owner of the Malamute Tavern on South Park Avenue agreed.

&#8220It will be hectic, but it will be worth it,&#8221 he said. &#8220I&#8217m not

complaining. I&#8217m grateful.&#8221