Illini men’s basketball fans and participants aren’t the only people benefiting from the team’s sustained No. 1 ranking. Local businesses are also riding the wave of Illini mania, in many ways making up for a less-than-stellar football season.

Retailers who specialize in Illini merchandise are particularly pleased with the season so far, said Cory Schumard, manager of Gameday Sports, 519 E. Green St.

“We’re Illini fans first, but we can cheer on a whole other level because of what it means for the bottom line,” Schumard said.

Schumard said there was a dramatic increase in business when the Illini became the number-one-ranked team in the nation after defeating Wake Forest on Dec. 1. Basketball merchandise has been dominating Gameday’s sales ever since.

“Make it an orange basketball piece and it’s tough to keep it in stock,” he said. “We had a huge Christmas, and it’s carried over into January.”

Other businesses also cite the Wake Forest game as the beginning of increased Illini-related business. Brandon Burke, a front desk agent at Hawthorne Suites, 101 Trade Center Drive, said the basketball season has increased demands for rooms.

“We definitely get more business, especially around game days,” Burke said. “Sometimes, people will come in two days in advance to make sure they have a room.”

Burke said most of the guests come from Illinois, but there have been a few that made a much longer trip.

“A majority of them are coming from Chicago and other Illinois cities,” he said. “I’ve heard of people from Iowa and Michigan, people who went here and came to visit.”

Even businesses that haven’t noticed a measurable change in sales have still noticed a change in atmosphere. Amy Rosenbaum, manager of Aunt Sonya’s restaurant, 116 W. Kirby Ave., said her restaurant might not be getting many more customers, but the customers are very enthusiastic.

“We’re so close to Assembly Hall that we’re always busy during basketball season,” Rosenbaum said. “I would say there’s a lot more excitement, though. There’s a lot of orange and blue that comes through the door, usually about two hours before a game and one hour after, if we’re open. We close at 9 p.m., but if we stayed open, we’d be busy then, too.”

Rosenbaum said part of the reason for the excitement at Aunt Sonya’s is that the restaurant is one of the team’s favorites.

“The players are big fans of our pancakes, so we get to know the guys on a personal level, and that’s exciting for us,” she said. “We had some people over Christmas break looking for them, trying to get their autographs. (The players) always get a rise out of that – they’re happy to give them autographs.”

Another benefit for many local businesses is that increased basketball-related sales could make up for the sometimes-lackluster football business earlier this year.

“We were seeing a lot of shaky business in the football season,” Burke said. “We didn’t get a lot of cancellations, but enough to put a damper on business. We had people with reservations for the whole season canceling after the first couple games, like ‘Oh, we don’t need to see anymore.’ Now, we still have people trying to make reservations.”

Schumard warned, though, that a successful basketball season wouldn’t necessarily compensate for a losing football season.

“There’s no bigger factor to our bottom line than a successful football season,” he said. “So, I don’t know. Talk to me in March or April. If this team does what we think they’re capable of doing, it could equal a Sugar Bowl in football.”