Restaurants in cities with pro football teams definitely see a boost of fans coming in on game days and a new report reveals what they’re eating and drinking. Toast, a restaurant point of sale and management system, analyzed food and alcohol sales of restaurants in the 30 cities with professional football teams throughout the 2023 NFL season to find out the most popular items ordered on football Sundays.
The research reveals that while beer may be the traditional beverage for football game watchers, it’s not what fans are ordering most in restaurants on game days. Hard seltzer is actually the most popular game day alcohol, according to Toast, which finds a 47% boost in hard seltzer sales on football Sundays compared to Sundays out of season.
- Lagers only get half the bump with 23%, and wine gets the same (23%).
- All other beer sales see a 14% increase, while whiskey goes up 20% and liqueurs 17%.
Top takeaways from the NFL cities restaurant analysis also include:
- It’s probably no surprise that chicken wings are the most popular game day food in NFL cities during football season. There’s a 25% increase in orders, on average, on Sundays in season compared to Sundays out of football season.
- Pizza, pasta, nachos and burritos all see a 6% boost in average items sold on Sundays in season versus out of season, while chicken tenders see a 5% increase.
- Overall, Green Bay has the biggest increase in food and alcohol sales out of all 30 cities with an NFL team on in-season Sundays, with a boost of 27% for food and 169% for booze.
Source: Toast