Starz Barber & Beauty on Mike McCarthy Way in Ashwaubenon. PC: Fox 11 Online
ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — For the community and local businesses, it’s now a waiting game, and not just counting down the days until the NFL Draft, but preparing for the six weeks of road closures that come with it.
“That is one of our biggest concerns right now,” says Chris Kimbrough.
“I don’t know how my routes are going to be affected and yeah I don’t know how traffic is going to be at all,” says Danielle Widowski.
Oneida along Lambeau field will be the first road to close on March 28, then Lombardi in mid-April. The week of the draft, roads around the Ashwaubenon stadium bars and businesses will close.
Businesses like Starz Barber and Beauty and Lala’s Café and Catering are caught between the excitement and opportunity of the draft and the logistics.
Both are located just outside of the draft road closures, meaning the main access roads to their businesses will be blocked, making it hard for employees and customers to get there.
“Definitely concerned with business for sure because, I mean, we’re a very small business, we’re still newer, too. We just had our year anniversary a couple of months ago so people don’t really know us, and just with the road closures and everything, we’re worried that people are going to avoid this area and then business is going to be affected by that so we are worried about that,” says Widowski, an employee at Lala’s
Lala’s is hopeful that locals, regulars, and connections with local hotels will spread the word about them to get draft visitors in their doors.
“Otherwise we don’t know how people are going to know about us especially when that main road is closed,” she adds.
At Starz, their second location on the east side is their fallback if barbers want to avoid the draft chaos.
“If anything, we would just allow the workers to work if they want, if not it is totally fine, but that would be our biggest concern is how business is going to flow for those few weeks or so,” says Kimbrough, a manager at Starz.
But right now, there are more questions than answers.
“Are we able to even maintain to continue to stay open, are we even going to be seen, are there going to be a lot of people actually on this street?” Kimbrough adds. “So it’s just a big concern, just making sure our barbers have their consistency in their work schedules.”
But despite the unknowns, both businesses know the draft is still an opportunity.
“We are excited for the new faces, new publicity for the shop, just for us to be seen,’ Kimbrough says. “[To have] have people come in going to the draft, coming in and stopping for a quick lineup, we want to make a lot of people’s days.”
Widowski says Lala’s is used to serving Packers players during the season, so they hope word-of-mouth from players will send other players, friends or family their way during the draft, too.
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