UCF prepares for conference championship

Businesses revel in extra home game

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – It's too soon to tell whether or not UCF will have a new football head coach or if Scott Frost will stay at the university.

Before that though, the Knights will host Memphis this weekend for the American Athletic Conference championship. 

"Nobody expected to have this undefeated season," sophomore Isaac Gutierrez-Tapia said.

Adam Chandler, the owner of The Pop Parlour, said it's a surreal feeling.

"We opened here when they didn't win any games, so it's the polar opposite change," he said.

Located just steps away from the stadium, his business in Knights Plaza relies on game-day traffic. 

"A football game, on average, is like seven or eight times our normal day sales," he said. "It's nice. We count on those days to help us through when it gets a little slower around here."

The excitement and the impact from this weekend's conference championship game extends beyond just on UCF's campus. 

The Basement Bar in Orlando started the season by offering free beer as long as UCF's football team won. Now, they've tweaked their promotion to free beer as long as Scott Frost stays as coach. 

"It's been getting increasingly busier," managing partner Logan Berkowitz said.

The original promotion started two seasons ago, when customers got a free Coors Light as long as the Knights stayed winless.

Now, the UCF alum has customers keeping the tap flowing as the Knights success continues. 

"It's been fun to have a team that's winning on the field, exciting to watch and it's just been really exciting," he added. 

Kickoff against Memphis is set for noon Saturday.


About the Author:

It has been an absolute pleasure for Clay LePard living and working in Orlando since he joined News 6 in July 2017. Previously, Clay worked at WNEP TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he brought viewers along to witness everything from unprecedented access to the Tobyhanna Army Depot to an interview with convicted double-murderer Hugo Selenski.

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