It's highly unusual for Michigan State to be out of the NCAA Tournament before the second weekend even tops off. It's not only unusual but it's unprofitable for local businesses.
Bars and restaurants were counting on being packed with Spartan fans at least once more. Many of those businesses are trying to figure out how much money they're losing.
"There's no big draw anymore there's no more of that event that people are all looking forward and going out and seeing" said Jason Martinez of Champps Kitchen and Bar in Lansing.
Not only was his bracket completely ruined he was worrying about the business.
"The losses that we will incur tens of thousands of dollars in sales that we are not going to have because they are not going to be playing" Martinez said.
That weekend they were expecting to make more than $55,000 from Thursday to Sunday.
But as Martinez said, they barely made $45,000, "we just didn't see it, it was a lot slower than expected to be," Martinez said. "We called off people, we sent people home. Those kinds of things. It wasn't what we thought it was going to be."
Martinez and Champps weren't alone. The loss of customers is also being felt in Mason.
"A lot of those reservations went away and on a Sunday evening that's something that goes right to the bottom line" said City Limits manager, Val Orlando.
Before the NCAA tournament start Orlando order thousands of dollars worth of inventory, only for MSU to be out in the first round.
"You refocus, you retool, you take the good with the bad," Orlando said. And that's exactly what he did. He turned the bad situation into something everyone could laugh at.
"Here we go green tears," Orlando said. With gallons of green beer remaining. He changed the name to fit the situation.
"Oh we've got spartan beer, it went from spartan cheers beer to spartan tears" said Orlando. He says since he's started calling the beer 'Green tears' he's surprisingly, been getting a lot of support and laughs.
That kind of marketing is what Kristin Beltzer of Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce says businesses will need to do to stay afloat.
"It's a great loss for them and it's hard for us from a business perspective," Beltzer said. "We really take that very seriously in this region and it's impacted and it's felt by a lot of people."
She says the loss won't close businesses but they will be tight for a few weeks.
