With the Super Bowl just days away, it’s easy to assume many Whitewater area pizza joints are preparing for a busy day.

But with the Green Bay Packers gearing up for their first appearance in the big game since 1998, pizza businesses in Whitewater are looking forward to the extra incentive that the home team is sure to bring to their business.

“Typically the Super Bowl is one of the top three sales days of the year for us,” said Scott Iverson, director of marketing at Toppers Pizza. “Business generally is up anywhere from 50 to 60 percent on a Super Bowl Sunday compared to a regular football Sunday. Now with the Packers being in the Super Bowl … we expect to set some pretty nice company record one-day sales.”

When the Packers appeared in the Super Bowl in 1998, Toppers Pizza had only four locations open. Currently, there are 28 franchise locations open in the upper Midwest, with 20 of the locations in Wisconsin, according to Iverson.

Although the business had just two weeks to prepare for Super Bowl Sunday, Iverson said he is doing what he can to prepare the many Toppers Pizza locations for the game, including doubling staff numbers.

“We’re telling all of our stores to basically gear up with staffing and just to be prepared that we could do up to 100 to 150 percent of what we normally do on a given Super Bowl,” Iverson said. “We think it could potentially be that big for our stores, and we want to make sure we’re ready.”

Iverson said the one certainty he can count on to make the day a bit easier for customers is online ordering, available on the Toppers website. He said he is expecting more pre-orders later in the week.

“Online ordering is never busy, so you can go online … put your order in, and you can even put it in well in advance,” Iverson said.

Just down the street, Gus’ Pizza Palace isn’t placing the focus on the number of pizzas sold, but on the number of deliveries.

“I don’t really anticipate a big sales increase by the number of pizzas that I sell, but it’s going to be a lot more deliveries than anything,” manager Colin O’Neill said. “No one will be coming and picking it up, and no one’s going to be eating in here.”

O’Neill has worked during the past two Super Bowl Sundays, and compares them to any “regular Sunday.” Although having the home team in the big game may affect business, O’Neill said he prefers to take business one day at a time.

“Because it’s the packers in it this year, I think there’ll probably be a little more Packer’s parties this year and maybe more incentive to get a bunch of food, so who knows,” O’Neill said. “It’s going to be a day-by-day thing.”

With a variety of expectations across the board for area pizza businesses, pizza lovers and football fans alike can expect a hot slice during what is sure to be a hot game, regardless of their usual differences.

“The college students have their loyalties to their various schools, but when you’re living in the state of Wisconsin, almost everybody’s got a loyalty to the Packers,” Iverson said.