NFL sidelined pizza sales? Papa John’s says yes, others no

NEW YORK The CEO of Papa John’s slammed the NFL’s leadership Wednesday and blamed protests by football players for pizza sales going cold. A day later, rival Pizza Hut said it saw no such impact. So what’s going on?

Papa John’s is closely associated with the NFL, due to its sponsorship of the league. But experts say it is also facing more competition as other fast- food chains start to deliver, taking a bite out of pizza sales. And there may be other issues in play: More people are cooking at home, and Papa John’s may have been too dependent on TV ads at a time when more people are spending time online.

The NFL also has fewer viewers than it used to. The average game this season has attracted 14.8 million viewers, down from 15.6 million at the same point last year.

Papa John’s said customers now have a negative view of the chain’s association with the NFL. “The controversy is polarizing the customer, polarizing the country,” CEO John Schnatter said.

Pizza Hut said the opposite: “We’re not seeing any impact from any of that on our business,” said Greg Creed, who is CEO of Pizza Hut owner YumBrands Inc.

“Nothing we reported in the quarter included commentary about the NFL becausewe saw no reason to call it out,” a Domino’s spokeswoman said Thursday.

Restaurant analyst John Gordon says he is skeptical of the NFL’s impact. There was a time when pizza chains were the only ones able to deliver food quickly, but that’s changing rapidly, says Gordon, the founder and CEO of Pacific Management Consulting Group.

McDonald’s Corp., for example, expects to expand delivery to nearly 14,000 U. S. locations by the end of the year. And KFC, which like Pizza Hut is owned by Yum Brands, hopes to double delivery sales at the fried chicken chain to $ 2 billion by 2020.