--- layout: default_v3 language: default permalink: blog/how-restaurants-prepare-nfl-season-using-pos-analytics.html i18n_link: 10164 updated: 2026-09-04 #--- article key-values ---# collection: default_articles category: restaurant-management tags: Nfl season, Nfl season restaurant, Restaurant tips, Season restaurant, Season restaurant tips type: article page_id: 10164 hreflang_id: 10164 date_published: 2026-09-04 date_modified: 2026-09-04 #--- javascript schema ---# javascript_schema: - script: jquery_3_2_0_min - script: bootstrap_min - script: article_infinite_scroll - script: article_mix_infinitescroll - script: article_mix - script: article_mix_faq - script: article_mix_toc #--- section schema ---# section_schema: - section: nav-main_menu - section: nav_submenu_iconview_v2 - section: article_body_v2 - section: footer - section: schedule_demo_cta #--- page key-values ---# meta_tags: t_meta_title: How POS Analytics Helps Restaurants Win the NFL Season t_meta_description: Learn how to prepare your restaurant for the 2026 NFL season using POS analytics. Improve staffing, menu planning, and game-day sales with data-driven insights. t_meta_abstract: Restaurants can use POS analytics to prepare for the 2026 NFL season by improving menu planning, staffing, inventory, real-time decisions, and customer retention. i_meta_image: og_how-restaurants-can-prepare-for-nfl-season-using-pos-analytics-in-2026.png article_body: json-ld_article: v_date_published: 2026-09-04 v_date_modified: 2026-09-04 author: p_author_id: 350 t_author: Ethan Carter p_author_url: ethan-carter.html i_author: 350.png t_author_position: Senior Content Writer t_author_description: Ethan Carter is a content writer specializing in restaurant operations, technology, and business trends. He creates informative, research-driven content that helps hospitality professionals make smarter business decisions. p_author_facebook: //www.facebook.com/ p_author_twitter: https://twitter.com/https://x.com/ p_author_linkedin: p_author_instagram: podcast_section: v_links: podcast_links: - t_title: Iheart Radio v_url: i_icon: iheart_radio_icon.png - t_title: Amazon Music v_url: i_icon: amazon_music_icon.png - t_title: Youtube Music v_url: i_icon: youtube_music_icon.png - t_title: Spotify v_url: i_icon: spotify_icon.png feature_snippet: p_type: text t_title: How can POS analytics help restaurants prepare for NFL season? t_description: POS analytics help restaurants identify top-selling items, forecast demand, schedule staff, manage inventory, and make faster game-day decisions using real sales data. content: heading: t_title: How Restaurants Can Prepare for NFL Season Using POS Analytics in 2026 t_description: Restaurants can use POS analytics to prepare for the 2026 NFL season by improving menu planning, staffing, inventory, real-time decisions, and customer retention. image: i_image: nfl-season-restaurant-tips-1788542695-3406.png t_image_description: v_image_attribution: v_image_license: v_video: paragraphs: - t_headline: t_text: Kickoff for the 2026 NFL season is September 9, and for restaurant operators, that date should be circled in red before it's circled on any fan's calendar. Football season isn't a nice bonus for the industry; it's one of the most predictable, highest-volume stretches on the entire calendar. Sports bars regularly see 20 to 30 percent higher sales on NFL Sundays compared to non-football Sundays. In cities with a passionate fan base, like Green Bay, restaurant food sales jump 27 percent and alcohol sales can spike well over 100 percent on game days.

The problem is that most restaurants treat every Sunday the same. They staff the same, order the same, and prep the same in September as they do in June. Then they get slammed at 11 a.m. before kickoff, run out of wings by the third quarter, and watch tables sit for twenty extra minutes because nobody planned for the rush. The restaurants that actually win football season aren't the ones with the most TVs. They're the ones using restaurant POS analytics to know exactly what's coming before it happens.

This blog walks through the NFL season restaurant tips that actually matter, from menu planning to staffing to real-time game-day decisions, so you're not guessing your way through eighteen weeks of the year's most profitable traffic. Along the way, we'll show exactly how to read your reports so football season restaurant sales become predictable instead of chaotic.

p_headline_type: h2 image: i_image: t_description: v_attribution: v_license: callout_text: - t_headline: Why Football Season Behaves Differently Than Any Other Season t_text: Football season isn't just "busier." It behaves in specific, measurable ways that a generic promotions calendar won't capture.

Sales patterns shift earlier in the day. Data from the first NFL Sunday of a recent season showed morning sales climbing well before kickoff, with a noticeable bump between 9 a.m. and noon as fans grab breakfast or brunch ahead of the game. If your restaurant only preps for a typical lunch rush, you're already behind by 11 a.m.

Menu preferences shift too. Chicken wing orders jump roughly 25% on NFL Sundays compared to the rest of the year, while items like seafood, enchiladas, and fajitas actually decline by a similar margin. Hard seltzer orders climb by nearly 50%. Fans aren't ordering their usual; they're ordering game-day food, and if your kitchen isn't stocked and staffed for that shift, you'll either run out or over-prep the wrong items.

And it's not one big day; it's eighteen-plus weeks of recurring volume, each with its own quirks. Early kickoffs versus late games change your rush windows. Home games versus away games change foot traffic differently depending on whether your restaurant is near a stadium or just has good TVs. Rivalry weekends and playoff pushes create spikes that a flat, "football season is busy" mentality will completely miss.

This is exactly why football season restaurant sales reward operators who plan with real numbers instead of instinct. The restaurants leaving money on the table aren't lazy; they just don't have visibility into what actually happened last season, hour by hour, item by item.

p_headline_type: h2 image: i_image: t_description: v_attribution: v_license: callout_text: call_to_action: p_type: purchase t_title: From Click to Kitchen t_text: Handle All Your Online Orders with Plum POS t_button_text: Request a Demo p_button_url: https://plumpos.com/schedule-demo/?utm_source=plumpos.com%2Fhow-restaurants-prepare-nfl-season-using-pos-analytics.html&utm_medium=cta&utm_campaign=From+Click+to+Kitchen&utm_term=NFL+Season+Restaurant+Tips&utm_article=45477 p_button_color: FF0000 v_form_id: v_product: plum-pos background: type: image i_image: https://wp.altametrics.com/assets/images/cta/329-banner-jtbd2.png p_video: p_color: 008000 - t_headline: What Restaurant POS Analytics Actually Tell You t_text: A modern restaurant POS system isn't just a way to ring up orders and close tabs. Every transaction it processes is a data point- what was ordered, when, by whom, how it was paid for, how long the table sat, and whether staffing matched demand at that moment.

Good restaurant POS analytics turn that raw transaction data into decisions-None of this is theoretical. It's the exact data sitting in your system right now from last season; most operators just never pull it apart and use it. That's the gap between restaurants that treat football season as chaos and restaurants that treat it as a repeatable playbook.

p_headline_type: h2 image: i_image: t_description: v_attribution: v_license: callout_text: - t_headline: t_text: Step 1- Mine Last Season's Data Before Preseason Ends

Preseason games start in early August, giving you a few weeks of runway before the real volume hits on kickoff weekend. Use it.

Pull your POS reports from last September through the playoffs and break them down by-If you're new to a location, or your restaurant didn't track this closely last year, even a rough pull of last September's sales trends will beat guessing. This single step is the foundation of every other NFL season restaurant tip in this guide. You can't staff, stock, or promote correctly if you don't know what actually happened last time football season came around.

Step 2- Build Game-Day Menus Around What Actually Sells

Football season isn't the time for a bloated menu. It's the time for a tight, high-velocity menu built around what your POS data says people actually order during games.

If wings, boneless bites, sliders, and shareable appetizers dominated your sales last season, build your specials and bundles around them instead of pushing items that historically slow down on game days. National data backs this up wings see a roughly 25% lift on NFL Sundays, while dine-in items like seafood plates tend to fall. Your own POS reports will tell you the same story specific to your restaurant, which matters more than any national average.

A few practical moves-This is one of the most overlooked NFL game day restaurant tips- it's not about adding more to the menu; it's about doubling down on what your data already proves works. Get this right and football season restaurant sales climb without adding a single new item to prep.

Step 3- Staff to the Data, Not to a Guess

Understaffing is the single most common football-season mistake, and it's almost always caused by scheduling based on gut feeling instead of historical sales-by-hour data.

Use last season's hourly sales reports to build your game-day schedules-Staffing shortages are a real constraint right now; a large share of restaurants report ongoing front-of-house gaps. That makes precise, data-backed scheduling even more important. You can't just throw more bodies at the problem; you have to put the right number of people in the right roles at the right hour. Posting the week's game schedule in the back of house and offering a small incentive for picking up tough game-day shifts also helps close gaps once you know exactly which shifts are hardest to fill.

Step 4- Use Real-Time Analytics During the Game, Not Just After

One of the most practical NFL game-day restaurant tips is also the simplest- don't stop watching your numbers once the doors open. This is where a lot of restaurants stop short. They pull historical reports to plan the week, then fly blind once the game actually starts. That's a mistake the best restaurant POS analytics platforms give you live dashboards during service, not just end-of-day summaries.
During kickoff and halftime rushes, real-time data lets you-Live visibility is what separates a restaurant that reacts to problems from one that prevents them. If your wings are moving twice as fast as usual by halftime, that's a signal to call an audible on prep, not something you should discover when the kitchen runs out at 3 p.m.

Step 5- Manage Inventory for an Eighteen-Week Marathon, Not a Single Event

Football season isn't a one-off promotion; it's roughly eighteen weeks of recurring high demand, and inventory planning needs to reflect that. Data from past seasons shows certain weeks run notably hotter than others; one recent season saw its single biggest sales week land in early October, well past opening weekend. If you only stock up heavily for kickoff weekend and coast after that, you'll get caught flat-footed later in the season.

POS-integrated inventory tracking helps you-Treating inventory as a season-long forecasting exercise, rather than a week-one scramble, is one of the more underused football season restaurant sales strategies, and it's entirely driven by having accurate, ongoing POS data rather than a spreadsheet built once in August.

Step 6- Turn One-Time Game-Day Traffic into Repeat Customers

A packed house on a Sunday is great. A packed house that comes back every Sunday for eighteen weeks is what actually moves your annual revenue.
Your POS system is also your best tool for building repeat business-This is where a lot of generic restaurant tips stop at "run a promotion" without asking whether that promotion built any lasting loyalty. The best NFL game day restaurant tips always tie back to a number you can measure the following Monday. Data-backed marketing, tied to who's actually spending and coming back, does more for your bottom line over a full season than a one-time discount ever will.

p_headline_type: h2 image: i_image: t_description: v_attribution: v_license: callout_text: - t_headline: How Plum POS Helps Restaurants Get Game-Day Ready t_text: This is exactly the gap Plum POS is built to close. Instead of digging through disconnected reports the week before kickoff, Plum POS gives operators real-time sales dashboards, hour-by-hour trend data, and labor forecasting tools that turn last season's numbers into this season's staffing and ordering decisions.

For multi-location groups, Plum POS also makes it possible to compare performance across restaurants during the same game, so you can see which location needs extra staff for a Sunday slate and which one is overstocked. Combined with built-in loyalty tracking, it's built to help you go into football season with a plan based on data, not memory.

p_headline_type: h2 image: i_image: t_description: v_attribution: v_license: callout_text: call_to_action: p_type: purchase t_title: Online Orders Made Easy t_text: Plum POS Ensures Seamless Processing t_button_text: Book a Demo p_button_url: https://plumpos.com/schedule-demo/?utm_source=plumpos.com%2Fhow-restaurants-prepare-nfl-season-using-pos-analytics.html&utm_medium=cta&utm_campaign=Online+Orders+Made+Easy&utm_term=NFL+Season+Restaurant+Tips&utm_article=45477 p_button_color: 1f4f6e v_form_id: v_product: plum-pos background: type: image i_image: https://wp.altametrics.com/assets/images/cta/328-banner-jtbd.png p_video: p_color: EE4B2B - t_headline: Conclusion t_text: Football season rewards preparation. The restaurants that treat it as eighteen weeks of predictable, data-backed opportunity rather than eighteen weekends of chaos are the ones that walk away with meaningfully higher revenue, tighter labor costs, and a base of regulars who come back every single Sunday. None of that requires guesswork. It requires actually using the sales, labor, and inventory data your POS system is already collecting.

Start now, while there's still time before kickoff. Pull last season's numbers, rebuild your game-day menu around what your data says actually sells, staff to the hours your reports show matter most, and keep watching the numbers as the season unfolds. Of all the NFL season restaurant tips out there, this is the one that compounds- consistent football season restaurant sales aren't luck; they're the result of restaurant POS analytics turning a chaotic stretch of the calendar into your most profitable football season of the year.

p_headline_type: h2 image: i_image: t_description: v_attribution: v_license: callout_text: call_to_action: p_type: purchase t_title: Accept, Process, and Profit with Ease! t_text: Streamline Your Online Orders with Plum POS t_button_text: Schedule a Demo p_button_url: https://plumpos.com/schedule-demo/?utm_source=plumpos.com%2Fhow-restaurants-prepare-nfl-season-using-pos-analytics.html&utm_medium=cta&utm_campaign=Accept%2C+Process%2C+and+Profit+with+Ease%21&utm_term=NFL+Season+Restaurant+Tips&utm_article=45477 p_button_color: ff0000 v_form_id: v_product: plum-pos background: type: image i_image: https://wp.altametrics.com/assets/images/cta/330-banner-jtbd3.png p_video: p_color: 0000FF event_body: json-ld_event: t_name: Employee Scheduling for Restaurant Managers t_description: Attendees will learn how create excellent schedules. The class teaches managers how to estimate the number of employees they need to staff their locations; how to accurately forecast their customer demand; how to quickly and accuaratly write and communicate schedules to employees; and how to evaluate the accuracy and optimization of their schedules to make adjustments. v_start_date: 2022-08-08 i_image: p_location_name: Altametrics Online Webinar Course p_address: webinar.altametrics.com?site=altametrics v_price: 10.00 t_offer_description: Priority Registration v_registration_url: webinar.altametrics.com?site=altametrics faq: t_faq_title: Frequently Asked Questions faq_ask: - t_question: How can a POS system help with game-day staffing? t_answer: A POS system tracks exactly when sales spike throughout a game day, down to the hour. That data lets managers schedule staff to match real demand, bringing extra hands in before the pregame rush and keeping the kitchen fully staffed through halftime instead of relying on a generic schedule that doesn't account for football season's unique traffic patterns.
- t_question: What food sells best during NFL games? t_answer: Shareable, fast-turning items dominate football Sundays. Chicken wings typically see the biggest lift, often up around 25 percent compared to non-game Sundays, along with boneless bites, sliders, and other handheld appetizers. Heavier, slower-to-plate dishes like seafood often decline during games, since fans want food that's easy to eat while watching.
- t_question: How much do restaurant sales increase during football season? t_answer: It varies by market, but sports bars commonly see sales rise 20 to 30 percent on NFL Sundays compared to non-football Sundays. In cities with especially passionate fan bases, the increase can be much higher; some markets see food sales jump over 25 percent and alcohol sales more than double on game days.
- t_question: What is restaurant POS analytics? t_answer: Restaurant POS analytics refers to the sales, labor, and inventory data your point-of-sale system collects from every transaction, turned into usable reports. This includes hourly sales trends, item-level performance, labor cost percentage, table turn times, and repeat customer data, all of which help operators make staffing, menu, and inventory decisions based on actual numbers instead of guesswork.
- t_question: How can restaurants prepare for NFL season? t_answer: Start by reviewing last season's sales data to identify your busiest hours, top-selling game-day items, and labor cost patterns. Use that data to rebuild your menu around high-velocity items, adjust staffing to match pregame and halftime rushes, and set inventory par levels for the full eighteen-week season rather than just opening weekend.
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