The Panther Paw Bar and Grill is expecting crowds to be three times larger than normal this weekend with students, alumni and visitors coming in to celebrate Homecoming, said Joe Sebright.

The extra people in Charleston for the weekend means booked hotels, busy bars and liquor stores, and a slight increase in crime reports.

“People are here all day long during Saturday,” said Sebright, manager of the Panther Paw.

More Homecoming events are scheduled for alumni this weekend than ever before, said Chelsea Frederick, assistant director of alumni services.

The office is expecting the biggest alumni population at Eastern in Homecoming history.

While there’s no way to accurately keep track of how many people flock in and out of Charleston for Homecoming every year, there’s no disputing that it is one of the busiest times of year at Eastern.

Comfort Suites in Mattoon is all booked for the weekend, said Felicia Kirkley, front desk manager. People began to make their reservations at the hotel as early as March.

“I know we are usually booked up for this weekend,” Kirkley said. “We just make sure we have enough people at the front desk and everything.”

All 55 employees of the Panther Paw are scheduled to work this weekend, Sebright said.

The bar and grill plans to open at 8 a.m. Saturday – three hours earlier than usual – for a beer breakfast with biscuits and gravy and doughnuts to accommodate the crowds drinking before the parade and tailgating, Sebright said.

“Everything is double stocked for this week,” he said.

Following the Homecoming football game, the bar and grill is usually packed until closing time, Sebright said.

Gateway Liquors is also anticipating a busy weekend and expects to sell a little less than double what it sells during a normal weekend, said manager Kurt Krupa.

“It’s probably the busiest weekend of the year,” he said. “It’s packed, so it’s hard to get around in here.”

Gateway will also have its entire staff working this weekend with nine people scheduled for Saturday, compared to the normal six, Krupa said.

More people start coming in earlier in the day and are also more intoxicated than usual, he said.

“They’re drunker earlier,” Krupa said.

The Friday of Homecoming is usually a busy day for Ronchetti Distributing Co. in Mattoon as well, said general manager Jeff Collings.

Ronchetti distributes Anheuser-Busch products to most bars and stores that sell alcohol in Charleston, and its deliveries are usually heavier on Friday, Collings said.

Collings said it’s difficult to estimate how much of an increase Ronchetti sees at Homecoming because it is different every year, but the company takes the weekend into account when making supply forecasts

He thinks part of the increase is because so many of the visiting population for the weekend are older than 21.

“That’s really what affects our (increase), is alumni and parents,” Collings said.

The increased number of people in town for Homecoming does more than just keep the bars and liquor stores busy, according to the University and Charleston Police Departments.

More people and increased drinking makes for a higher-than-average number of crime reports during the weekend, said Chief Adam Due, of UPD.

“That weekend tends to be more active,” Due said. “Our numbers (of incidents) pick up during that weekend.”

Last year, seven crime reports were filed during Homecoming Weekend, and four were filed the year before, according to UPD.

More officers are on duty than usual to help with the parade and the football game, Due said. The increased number of officers contributes to the increased number of incidents, he added.

“More people are going to get caught because there’s more people out there,” Due said.

Many of the incidents involve students and visitors of students, rather than alumni and parents.

“With visitors, they think they’re anonymous,” Due said. “Alumni are older, so they’re less likely to get in trouble.”

Many of the violations involve alcohol, whether it’s an alcohol-related offense or something else like fighting, Due said.

The Charleston Police Department usually sees an increased number of incidents during Homecoming Weekend as well, said deputy Chief Dave Chambers.

“Sometimes, there’s a higher frequency of kids out socializing and drinking,” Chambers said. “I’m not going to say that we have worse things that happen, but we have a higher exposure to things that happen every weekend.”