Detroit Lions playoff run brought $20M to city for each game

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Monday morning after a brutal NFC Championship game loss was brutal for the Detroit Lions' fans. There is a bit of a silver lining, however, as downtown Detroit businesses saw millions of dollars come in as a result of the Lions 12-win season and NFC Championship game appearance.

After Sunday night's heartbreaking loss to the San Francisco 49ers, we're looking back at the Lions run and talking to Detroit-area businesses about what it meant to them, financially, and the resounding answer was a lot!

Michael Gillyard works at the Old Shillelagh and, after a stop at FanaticU for some Lions gear, he showed up to work at the Iris pub – which brought in a bit of a financial windfall for the bar.

"It was exciting. The whole season. I mean every sunday we had a full house," he said. "I think it did a lot financially for the city. We had a lot of bars that were down here that were open, we had a lot of restaurants that were open, we had people out selling merchandise. So I think it really did a lot for the city."

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Shops like FanaticU may have had the biggest impact – since they sell Lions swag. The shop was full of fans – almost like the Red Wings in the heyday.

"You know down here we do pretty well during tigers games and stuff like that but it’s just been nuts during lions season," FanaticU employee Wayne Bengal said.

But it's more than just businesses saying they saw some major impact – Chris Moyer from Visit Detroit said the same.

"It’s helping business," Moyer said. "A lot of restaurants and bars go short-staffed in January. Think about the hundreds of people in the city of Detroit that are working, that have worked these past few weekends because of the Lions."

That extends to people like Uber drivers and stadium workers. 

All told, it led to $20 million being brought into each home playoff game.

"America has been calling the Lions America’s team and we want to make Detroit America's city again because Detroit has made America," Moyer said.

Despite the loss, everyone we talked with downtown said they don't believe this year was a fluke.

"I think we’re going to get a lot of quality players that’s coming through the free agency that want to come here now because they see what Dan Campbell has in store,." Gillyard said.

"The NFL needs to lookout. You know, next year it’s going to be even better. I'm hoping for big things next year," Moyer said.