Local businesses reaping World Cup benefits

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – This summer’s World Cup is meaning a bump for local businesses.

Ian Tostenson, president of the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association, says it’s too early to get any concrete numbers, but he’s hearing many places are having to turn people away because they’re too full. “Any time you have an event like the World Cup and it gives people a reason to go and have lunch, a beer, watch the game, especially during office time it works really well. I think this will be a really nice boost.”

Tostenson says he predicts a better year for the industry than last year, partially because of the World Cup, and better business than expected after the Canucks failed to make the playoffs.

The World Cup is also boosting jersey sales, which began to slump after the Canucks skated off the ice.

John Czvelka with Van City Sports every four years the World Cup has a major impact. “Jersey sales have been amazing from the get-go as soon as they got released.”

Czvelka says the spike in jersey sales can’t make up for the loss felt by poor Canucks sales. He adds there were also some hiccups with World Cup jersey’s this year, making things worse. “Some of the countries have been exptremely hard to come by, some of the distributors had issues, some countries were really short printed.”

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