BUTTE — March Madness is giving a boost to business at local restaurants in Butte, keeping customers in their seats longer to watch the games.
At MacKenzie River Pizza, the college basketball tournament is helping drive sales, even if the staff missed out on the bracket frenzy this year.
"Customers who would come in and only stay for an hour or so are staying longer because they are watching the games," General Manager Brad O'Leary said.
O'Leary has been working for the restaurant since it opened in March 2006. He and other staff members were too busy celebrating the restaurant's 20th anniversary on March 16 to fill out March Madness brackets.
"A lot of times the staff... we fill out our own brackets, and this is the first year since I've been here that I haven't done one," O'Leary said.
WATCH: Butte pizza restaurant sees March Madness business boost
The milestone anniversary took priority over the tournament for the crew.
"We were so busy focused on that, that March Madness was kind of a second thought, which is a little weird cause we got a lot of sports here, but we were focused on that 20-year milestone, and so we kinda put all our time, attention, and efforts into that," O'Leary said.
Even though most of the crew did not participate in the sports betting frenzy this year, O'Leary is looking forward to the next tournament.
"Yeah, we'll try 'er again next year, and my brackets are never very good anyway. So, I'm never in the running, and so that's alright that I didn't get to it this year," O'Leary said.
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