CARLSTADT, New Jersey (WABC) — Many businesses around MetLife Stadium were expecting a boom during the World Cup.
Some are saying that boom never came and many say their business is going bust.
Steve’s Sizzling Steaks in Carlstadt, New Jersey, is five minutes from MetLife Stadium.
The restaurant on Route 17 has been around since 1936.
They even have the phone booth to prove it.
On a typical night, it’s sizzling, but on a World Cup match day, it’s a ghost town.
In fact, the manager says on match days, business has been down by 60 percent.
So they are now cutting staff when there’s World Cup action at MetLife.
The state DOT has been issuing gridlock alerts, warning drivers to stay away from certain roads on match days.
“It’s just everyone’s avoiding it. Totally paying attention to it and everything is empty,” one patron said.
“Why all of sudden do they want to tell us where the traffic is? They’re never concerned about that the rest of the year. But now? Now when we want traffic,” manager Henry Ditonto said.
The restaurant even has a webcam live streaming on their website just to show customers the parking lot is empty, hoping to convince some patrons to come out.
As for that economic boom from the World Cup they were told was coming, they say they knew even before the games started that wasn’t going to happen.
“We went to some of the hotels in the area to let them know you know if they wanted to leave a menu for their people coming in, but they had told us that they were only like 40% capacity,” Ditonto said.
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