EAST LANSING, Mich — The NCAA tournament is back, and fans across our neighborhoods are flocking to local businesses to catch the action.
That's especially true in Spartan country in East Lansing. I talked to businesses who say this weekend is one they look forward to each year.
WATCH: Local businesses are seeing boosts in sales from the NCAA Tournament
"It's madness. It's the start of it," one unidentified person said.
One North East Lansing General Manager Jeremy McKowen said the start of the tournament is one of the best times of the year for local businesses.
"We've seen some people take the afternoon off work, which has been nice. The phones have been ringing. We've been plotting some reservations," McKowen said.
Thursday's Spartan game brought a big crowd in to catch the action against the Bison. McKowen said they had to prepare quickly this week.
"We didn't know the game time until Sunday night, so the schedules had already been written. So the 4 o'clock was kind of in a weird transition time, so we called in some people a little early, had our night crew come in a little early to just get ready because we figured the seats could be full when they come in at four," McKowen said.
After a big win to advance to the Round of 32, McKowen expects another big crowd when the Spartans play again on Saturday.
"We'll be rooting for them heavily, for not only just the fact that we bleed green, but we really want to see them on Saturday for business as well," McKowen said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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