Fans will hear the roar of the crowd.

Players will hear the drum of their own adrenaline-pumped heartbeats.

And local businesses, well, they’ll hear the sweetest Super Bowl sound of all: ca-ching.

Businesses from beer distributors to sports merchandisers to electronics retailers are seeing a spike in sales, thanks to America’s annual fete of football.

Super Bowl XXXVIII kicks off at 6:25 p.m. today when hometown favorites the New England Patriots take on the Carolina Panthers for the NFL championship title. But the boost to local business has been in the works for weeks.

“As soon as the Pats clinched the (AFC) title, we were booked,” said Dave Gosselin, manager of RentWay in Lewiston, which rents big-screen TVs. Their half-dozen, 43-inch-wide to 56-inch-wide TVs were snapped up right away after the Pats’ Jan. 18 win. The sets rent for $100 to $250 for the weekend.

Some fans are apparently looking for a longer-term investment. Managers at Sears and Agren Appliance report hefty increases in the sales of big-screen, projection televisions. In fact, Agren’s has been advertising them on its store sign since the AFC championship game.

“It’s been generating a lot of traffic for us,” said Paul Baribault, marketing director at Agren’s in Auburn.

Brad Kutulas, manager at Sears, said the Super Bowl has given big-screen TV sales a “tremendous boost.”

“We’re up a lot over last year at this time,” he said. Dollar-wise, sales of the TVs have more than doubled since 2002, the last time the Pats were in a Super Bowl, he said.

“When you have an event like that, people want to see it as big as possible,” said Kutulas.

And they want to be well-sated when they do. That means lots of snacks and drinks for those fans hosting home parties, and for busy servers at area bars.

Shaw’s, Hannaford’s and Wal-Mart all expect a bump in food sales related to the Super Bowl.

The biggest sellers: deli platters, chips, soda, beer, wings, frozen pizza, chili fixings. None of the retailers were willing to disclose numbers, but Mike Ball, manager at Auburn’s Wal-Mart, said the sales are very comparable to a New Year’s Eve in volume and selection, while Christmas and Thanksgiving remain the two top holidays for food sales. Wal-Mart was adding extra hands in the deli for Friday and Saturday, in anticipation of all those party platter orders.

And pizza places are ramping up for what major chains consider the biggest pizza day of the year. Most local pizzerias have scheduled extra workers, especially those that deliver. Fans’ love of pizza extends to the freezer as well. The National Frozen Pizza Institute reports its highest sales in January, much of it attributable to the Super Bowl.

Goal to go

Local bars and taverns are hoping to attract fans who don’t want the bother of putting on a home party but who crave like-minded pigskin pals. At Fast Breaks in Lewiston, extra bartenders and servers will be working on what could be the busiest day of the year for them.

“We’re having a big party here,” said Tina Dionne, a bartender. “We’ll probably at least double what we do on a typical Sunday.”

The bar is gearing up by making sure it’s well stocked. Dionne said on a typical Sunday the bar would go through one or two kegs of beer; this Sunday, workers expect to empty five or six.

Fast Breaks, like other bars and taverns, gets its beverage supply from local distributors. Mike Klemanski, director of marketing at Federal Distributors, said the Super Bowl “is huge for us.”

“I’d say we see between a 35 and 40 percent increase for that one week,” he said. Federal Distributors supplies area stores, restaurants and bars with Budweiser products.

Klemanski’s counterpart at Central Distributors said his company also predicts a bump in businesses, but “nothing too extravagant.” He said the Super Bowl pales in comparison with the spike in business Central sees during summer holidays.

“It’s a much bigger deal when the temperatures are higher,” said Mike Obar, sales manager.

Rally caps

Anthony Riordan is profoundly grateful for the Pats’ AFC win – since then, he’s seen sales at the Athletic Barn in Lisbon increase 69 percent over last year. A merchandiser of licensed sportswear, Riordan said he expects sales to go up 200 to 300 percent if the Patriots win the Super Bowl. He saw a similar spike after the 2002 win.

“We were carried over six weeks with selling Pats apparel, right up to the start of the baseball season,” said Riordan. “This is a real big benefit to us.”

Right now, Patriot caps are going out the door, said Riordan. Olympia Sports is seeing the same phenomenon.

“Hats are definitely the most popular item,” said Tabitha Baker, assistant manager of Olympia Sports at the Auburn Mall. She estimates overall sales have increased 10 to 15 percent since the Patriots hit the playoffs.

And she expects the rally to continue if they win the Super Bowl. Baker said she’s keeping her fingers crossed that the franchise will be able to get their NFL championship merchandise as quickly this year as they did when the Pats won in 2002.

“We had it the day after the Super Bowl,” she said. “There are no guarantees, but we’re hopeful we’ll get it that fast this year as well.”

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