Football Season Brings Ebbs and Flows to Local Vendor Football Season Brings Ebbs and Flows to Local Vendor

Reporter: Rodney Cooper owns and operates Grateful Dawgz on the S-U campus, and he says the Orange football schedule has frankly, driven sales.

Rodney Cooper: The gameday against Clemson was great, I mean you couldn’t have asked for a better day.

Reporter: Although night games such as Clemson help business, Cooper did say games earlier in the day are not as profitable for him.

Rodney Cooper: No more noon kickoffs is the first thing I want to say no more noon kickoffs, mainly because the students are what I am selling to during the football games. Last weekend when we played Western Michigan, I didn’t do well at all. In fact, it wasn’t worth me being here.

Reporter: Cooper said he plans to stay open until the end of the semester, and profit off night basketball games. I’m Noah Cierzan, N-C-C news.

Hype surrounding the Syracuse University football team this year has been high. Coming off their first 10 win season since 2001, there is much to be excited about. For many SU fans, that involves going to the games, and for local businesses, this means money making opportunities arise.

For Rodney Cooper, when Syracuse is a “wiener”, so is he.

Cooper owns and operates Grateful Dawgs, located on the corner of Walnut Ave and Waverly Ave on the Syracuse campus. He says the return of football has, at times, brought in good profits.

“The game day when Clemson was here was absolutely great. I mean, you couldn’t have asked for a better day,” said Cooper.

While some games bring in the dough for Cooper, others prove to be duds. Cooper said some games are worse for business.

“No more noon kickoffs,” said Cooper.

This is where scheduling can help or hurt business. While Syracuse has at least one more noon game on its schedule, it does not currently have any night games. Cooper even went as far to say that noon games are sometimes not profitable for him.

Even through the ups and downs, Cooper enjoys seeing the different faces come to his stand.

“I’ve got construction workers, students, faculty, grounds people, even people who drive by and see me. It’s a very diverse set of people who stop here,” said Cooper.

With that being said, Cooper would not mind the few Syracuse games that times have not been announced for, to be later in the day.

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