Pizza joints are rolling in dough.

Literally.

At the Sam’s in Rumford, workers are preparing twice as many pans of dough as they normally do on a Sunday. That’s because tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, often the busiest day of the year for pizzerias.

“I believe it was the busiest day for us two years ago,” said Sarah Burgess, manager. That’s the last time the New England Patriots won the NFL championship. “Last year we didn’t do nearly as well.”

Nationally, big pizza chains such as Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and Little Caesars expect Sunday will be their biggest day of the year. Sales will reach into the hundreds of millions and many of the pizza kingpins will roll out special Super Bowl-themed promotions.

Local eateries are getting their game faces on as well. Extra shifts of workers have been scheduled and many are running their own special promotions. At Sam’s, it’s two large pizzas with one topping for $12.99. Normally, the restaurant would prepare 30 pans of dough in advance, but for this Sunday they’ll have about 60 ready.

“We expect it’ll be the busiest day of the year for us,” said Burgess.

Peg Hackett at George’s in Auburn expects the same. Business will likely double Sunday and the pizza house is preparing by putting on extra workers. But there won’t be any Super Bowl specials.

“We don’t need them,” she said.

The national chains aren’t taking any chances. Pizza is a $32 billion business and all the major players are scrambling for their piece of the pie.

Michael Laliberte, manager of Papa John’s in Lewiston, said he expects they’ll make at least $1,000 more in net sales over last year’s Super Bowl game. He’s hoping the chain’s chicken strip special (buy three, get one free) and its two large cheese pizzas for $14.99 will help that projection along. Having the Patriots in the game this year translates to more people watching, and more people watching means more people ordering pizzas.

“I believe we’ll have our entire staff working at some point during the day,” said Laliberte. There’ll be nine folks manning the inside operation and seven making deliveries. That should be enough to handle the onslaught of calls. Laliberte said there’s no sense in ordering in advance unless a customer needs a really big order – more than 10 pizzas, for instance.

“Otherwise we should be able to accommodate you,” he said.

Domino’s is also gearing up for a busy day; shift manager Jennifer Finkiewicz said they expect to double sales over a typical Sunday. They’re preparing by cross training all the employees so they can move among food prep, customer service and deliveries with ease.

Finkiewicz said the chain expects to sell a lot of its new Philly cheese steak, as well as the traditional cheese or pepperoni pizzas. And its new line of salads has been a big seller.

“We’re expecting a lot of business Sunday,” she said.

Over at Pizza Hut, the granddaddy of the pizza chains, workers are hoping the $50 million launch of its newest product the “4forAll” pizza will help it preserve the 13.4 percent market share it now commands. Its closest competitor is Domino’s, with 8.4 percent of market share.

The 4forAll pizza is a rectangular-shaped pizza divided into four quadrants, each with its own customized topping. Dan Madore, the assistant manager at Lewiston’s Pizza Hut, said the quad pizza is already on the menu, but the chain will begin its national advertising blitz this weekend to prompt interest.

He said his staff is all set for the Super Bowl rush. Aside from the increase in business, he said there’s another Super Bowl trend he’s witnessed: Girlfriends and wives come to pick up the pizzas.

“I call it Mother’s Day,” he joked.

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