Papa John's Pizza chaos nets $37,500 in donations

Katie Byard reported at Ohio.com that participating Papa John's stores — in the Cleveland, Akron, Toledo, Youngstown and Columbus areas — served an estimated 75,000 pies during the one-day promotion Thursday.

The offer — an apology for a franchisee's insult lobbed at Cavaliers star LeBron James — resulted in long lines and lots of publicity for the chain.

The 23-cent price of a pizza was an homage to James' jersey number. The Louisville, Ky.-based chain cooked up the mea culpa after a franchisee in Washington, D.C., handed out T-shirts calling James a ''crybaby.''

In Akron, shortly after the offer began at 11 a.m. Thursday, police reported a traffic back up on state Route 8 — owing to drivers trying to exit at Buchtel Avenue to get to East Market Street store.

Customers said the East Market store closed around 4 p.m., sending a crowd of several hundred scrambling, then reopened several hours later.

In Columbus, things were more shaky.

The Columbus Dispatch reported that by the end of the day Thursday, all Columbus-area stores appeared to have closed after becoming overwhelmed by demand.

Stores were making 200 to 300 pizzas an hour at times.

The West Market Street store in Akron's Wallhaven neighborhood expected to sell 2,000 pies.

Competing pizza shops reported a sales boost from customers defecting lines outside Papa John's stores.

''We salute Cleveland fans for coming out in incredible numbers,'' Tim North, a Papa John's division vice president, said in the news release.

On the plus side, the chain issued a news release saying the one-day promotion raised more than $17,500, with proceeds going to the LeBron James Foundation .

In addition to $17,500, Papa John's corporate donated $10,000 to the LeBron James Family Foundation and $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.