Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Cory Amrhein, a manager at Buffalo Wild Wings, uses a computer as a guide for filling out the restaurant's NCAA basketball tournament bracket.

Kentucky fan Brian Rotenberry (left) and West Virginia fan Dan Day kick back Thursday at Buffalo Wild Wings in Roanoke to watch the first games in the Division I men's basketball tournament.

Dan Day was waiting for the games to begin when a passing thought of work intruded.

"I was just deliberating about going out to my office to get a laptop," said Day, who works for Magnetic Technologies Corp.

About noon Thursday, as the first March Madness basketball matchups loomed, the most widely anticipated college basketball of the year was about to begin.

Restaurants catering to fans ordered extra food and polished television screens.

Other employers braced for the likelihood that at least some of their employees would watch, bet on games and chatter about jump shots at or during work -- a drain on productivity that one expert estimated at more than $1 billion.

This year, the games can be seen not only on TV but free over the Web.

Day and friend Brian Rotenberry shared a table at the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant at Valley View Mall in Roanoke. The two men were surrounded by 43 televisions.

"These are the two greatest weekdays of the year," said Rotenberry, referencing the first two days of the annual NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, when hard-core fans of college basketball can watch 16 games per day.

Rotenberry, a branch manager for a Primary Residential Mortgage office in Roanoke and a big fan of the University of Kentucky's storied basketball program, is single.

"I'll be out until 1 o'clock tonight watching the games," he said.

Day is married. How does his wife cope with March Madness?

"She endures," he said. "She endures."

Nearby, three employees of beer distributor Blue Ridge Beverage of Salem waited for the first-round games. They drank soft drinks.

They planned an extended lunch.

"We like seeing the opening tipoff," Gary Herald said. "It's kind of a tradition."

Herald backs Duke. Brian Cass graduated from the University of North Carolina. Eric Kennedy sat quietly between them.

"He's a UVa fan," Cass said. "That's why he's not excited."

Not one of the men at the two tables felt allegiance to teams involved in the games broadcast during lunch. They had other interests.

"We all filled out a bracket," Cass said, for a company pool.

He and Herald agreed that Virginia Tech should have received an NCAA berth. Instead, Tech will be playing in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament on Monday against Alabama-Birmingham.

Cory Amrhein, a manager at Buffalo Wild Wings, said the restaurant had been pulling for the Hokies too.

"Businesswise, it would have been really good to have Tech in the tournament," he said.

The restaurant was keeping five to 10 extra cases of wings on hand.

Julie Atkins, owner of All Sports Cafe in Roanoke and Salem, called this period the second-busiest time of the year for her establishment, behind football season.

But the flip side of the season is the challenge of keeping employees focused.

Workplace trends expert John Challenger said employers can expect some employees will choose basketball over work.

And when employees receive games via streaming video, the viewing occupies bandwidth of company computers, slowing things down, Challenger warned.

Numerous games early in the tournament are scheduled during the workday.

Employers "who insist there will be no impact are kidding themselves," Challenger said, estimating that companies could pay up to $1.7 billion in unproductive wages during the 16 business days of the tournament season, which concludes April 7.

His figure is based on an estimate that up to 37.3 million people will waste 10 minutes a day at work following basketball.

Salem, for one, will be blocking NCAA tournament video streams to prevent city employees from watching on workplace computers, said Melinda Payne, director of planning and development.

In contrast, Valley Bank said no special filters, restrictions or warnings are planned and no blocking software that would prevent an employee from viewing a game has been installed.

Instead, the bank intends to rely on the good judgment of employees to follow previously stated policy, "which does not include visiting Web sites for personal use," said Ellis Gutshall, president and chief executive officer.

"When at the workstation, we should always be ready for customer interaction."

"Additionally, for March Madness, we do have a bankwide tournament contest that all participants seem to find quite enjoyable," he said.

Another bank, BB&T, takes a less strict approach by allowing limited personal use of company computers.

Asked about the possibility of limited viewing of NCAA basketball, spokeswoman A.C. McGraw said: "We expect our employees to meet the needs of our clients first and foremost."

duncan.adams@roanoke.com 981-3324

jeff.sturgeon@roanoke.com 981-3251