REGINA – With Super Bowl 2014 kicking off in less than 24 hours, the fans and the families are prepared.
“We’re pretty excited and I haven’t been sleeping – I can go for about four hours and then I wake up excited and can’t go back to sleep,” said Barb Ryan, mother of Jon Ryan.
Jon is the first Saskatchewan-born player to ever play in the Super Bowl.
He may be playing in Seattle Seahawks’ blue, green and grey colours, but Regina consumers seem to have no problem adopting the Seahawks as a second home team this week.
The Northgate Mall location is seeing 20 per cent more customers than usual.
“This is our last piece of Seahawks merchandise. It’s a Seahawks pennant. This is the only thing that people haven’t jumped on yet, I guess because it’s kind of hidden up there,” said River City Sports assistant manager James McCallum.
The Quance Street store is also seeing more traffic than usual, as Super Bowl day approaches.
McCallum estimates 75 per cent of Super Bowl shoppers at his store are visiting for Seahawks merchandise.
“We can’t keep it on the shelves. It just kind of flies out of here. (Denver) Broncos’ stuff, as you can see, we still have,” he said pointing to a wall stocked with hanging jerseys.
While he says the Ryan allure can take credit for a lot of the interest, he sees a deeper connection with the nascent consumer adoration for the Seawhawks.
“I spent a lot of years, as a kid, watching the Riders growing up, and they were always kind of underdogs, and it seems like the Seahawks are underdogs in this game as well, and people can kind of get behind that,” said McCallum.