Two weeks ago, Jerry Dellas had a vision. This week, that vision has become an afterthought.

Before the start of Syracuse University’s first 2004 home football game on Sept. 18, Marshall Street was shut down to car traffic and open only to pedestrians. Dellas, the president of the Crouse-Marshall Business Association and partial owner of Faegan’s Caf & Pub and Varsity Pizza, said the idea was to create the ‘ultimate tailgate party.’ The ‘party,’ however, did not live up to the expectations of many local business owners. And much to Dellas’ dismay, the event, which was supposed to happen before each home game, has been canceled for this Saturday and the foreseeable future.

The street had been closed off to car traffic for two hours when SU and Cincinnati kicked off at noon before the last game. But as soon as the event had started, many business owners realized that it was not what they had expected.

Instead of the ultimate tailgate party, store owners saw two local radio stations, 95X and Q93, broadcasting from either end of the street. And the crowds they saw were no larger than the normal crowds they saw on game days. If anything, they were worse.

‘We’ve found that whenever the street is closed to traffic, it hurts business,’ said Demo Stathis, owner of Cosmo’s Pizza and Grill. ‘Closing the street to vehicular traffic seems to also hurt pedestrian traffic.’

That Saturday, Stathis said, was no exception to the rule. Almost immediately, Stathis took action, trying to put an end to the event on future game days.

‘We went around to all the other merchants and put together a petition opposing shutting down the street,’ Stathis said. ‘Most, if not all, of them signed it.’

It was the reverse of the same process that Dellas had done to get the event approved.

‘I had to literally go door to door explaining it to people,’ Dellas said of his efforts. ‘And most people (had been) for it.’

Stathis said he wasn’t surprised at owners’ willingness to sign his petition, nor was he surprised to hear how easily they’d signed the one put together by Dellas.

‘He’s a very persuasive person,’ Stathis said, ‘not that there’s anything wrong with that.’

Still, Dellas questions many businesses’ lack of faith in the idea. Instead of blaming his tailgating event, he feels owners should place more of the blame on the football team’s poor performances of late.

‘The turnout for the games is so down that there aren’t enough people coming up to the Hill,’ Dellas said.

Still, Dellas said he tried to persuade the merchants to give the event one more try. This time, his efforts were unsuccessful.

‘I walked the street on Tuesday and everybody was against it,’ Dellas said. ‘Everybody was so slow (on Sept. 18), and they’re blaming it on the event.’

Chuck Szulis, a store manager at Manny’s, saw firsthand that the event added nothing to his store’s sales.

‘Customers came in saying it was bad enough parking down here, and that the event only made it worse,’ Szulis said. ‘It was a fiasco. It was terrible. Traffic in the store was considerably down. (Store owner Mike Rubenstein) was livid.’

Still, Stathis said he would be up for some sort of event-so long as the street wasn’t shut down.

Such an event is still a possibility. Dellas said the radio stations still plan on trying to broadcast from the street in some fashion, perhaps from the university lot. But any event that is planned now, Dellas said, will be done without his help.

‘It kind of sucked for me,’ Dellas said. ‘I’ve thrown my hands in the air. I’ve kind of backed out of it.’

Published on September 30, 2004 at 12:00 pm