Jaded Fans Still Shopping Sales Of Athletic Merchandise Continue Unabated Worldwide

While many sports fans nationwide are dissatisfied with the state of professional athletics due to lockouts, strikes and franchise relocations, those factors certainly haven’t quenched their thirst for athletic merchandise.

In 1994, the NFL made $3 billion in gross retail merchandise sales; the NBA, $2.5 billion; Major League Baseball, $2.1 billion; and the National Hockey League $1 billion.

Jerseys, hats, jackets, t-shirts, shorts, automobile license plate frames, bumper stickers and anything else sold with a professional sports logo on it puts money in the pockets of the leagues, teams, manufacturers and retailers.

Licensees such as Apex, Fleer, Russell Athletic, Starter, Champion and LA Logo are also reaping the profits of sports-crazed consumers.

“It’s all pretty amazing,” said Jonathan Stern, the NBA’s marketing communications manager. “We went from $10 million in sales in the early ‘80s to $3 billion in a period of 14 years.”

In 1981-82, the NBA’s marquee players were Julius Erving, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Today, it seems as though at least half the teams in the NBA have a star player to market.

And if a team doesn’t have a star to market, it has a good looking uniform to market.

In the NBA, the Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets and Seattle SuperSonics unveiled new uniforms in recent weeks.

In the NFL, the expansion franchises in Carolina and Jacksonville have yet to play a game. But their attractive uniforms made them two of the league’s top-selling teams last year.

Carolina ranked No. 8 in team sales while Jacksonville ranked No. 12 in the 30-team league.

In the first six months after Carolina and Jacksonville merchandise hit the stores, the NFL made $100 million off the two teams.

The NBA’s Toronto Raptors expansion franchise was the No. 7-selling team in the NBA last year, and they have yet to hold a practice.

Baseball’s Colorado Rockies, in just their third season, were the No. 1-selling baseball team last year, while the Charlotte Hornets were the No. 1 seller in the NBA.

And say what you will about the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, the NHL took the quacker to the top of the league in merchandise sold.

Winning may have been everything to legendary Green Packers coach Vince Lombardi, but he probably knew little about marketing and public relations.

The SuperSonics have lost in the first round of the playoffs for two years in a row; however, in 1994, they were the No. 6-selling team in the NBA.

Seattle, with the highly visible Shawn Kemp, will have new threads this season.

“It’s a whole new look for a whole new era,” said Kim Cleworth, vice president of marketing for Ackerly Communications, the organization that owns the team.

With the Seattle Space Needle serving as the “I” in SONICS, the organization wanted to capitalize more on Seattle’s surroundings.

“We really wanted to focus on something that felt local and in keeping with the tradition of Seattle,” she said. “We think we’ve accomplished that.”

Seattle’s new uniforms will be unveiled Nov. 2, with jersey replicas scheduled to hit sports stores between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

While the Hornets, Mighty Ducks, Rockies and Raptors have sold well, for the most part, the teams at the top of the revenue list for their respective leagues are the ones with winning records and rich traditions.

In the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys sold the most team merchandise, followed by the 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins.

“People want to associate with winners. It’s a way for the fan to touch, feel and own part of the team they love,” said Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s director of corporate communications.

And even though they haven’t won a great deal lately, the Raiders, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers all ranked in the NFL’s top 10 in merchandise sold last year. It’s been at least 10 years since any of those teams went to a Super Bowl.

In baseball, the Chicago Cubs have had just two winning seasons in the past 25 years. This is the first year in the ‘90s that the Cubs made it to the All-Star break with a better than .500 record. Last year, however, they were the No. 8 seller of baseball goods.

While Sonics merchandise has demonstrated broad appeal, , the Seattle Mariners and Seattle Seahawks don’t sell much on the national level

Both teams have occupied the bottom one-third of merchandise sales in baseball and football for years. However, Ken Griffey Jr. alone has pulled the Mariners out of the merchandising doldrums. And, according to McCarthy, the NFL did see a surge in sales of Rick Mirer jerseys. Mirer wears No. 3 for the Seahawks.

And even though the Seahawks and Mariners rank in the bottom third of merchandise sales in their leagues, they earn as much merchandising revenue as the Cowboys and Rockies - teams in all four leagues share equally in merchandising revenue.

Revenue has declined because football, baseball and hockey have all been on strike in the past 10 years.

Baseball is still trying to get its fans back, and right now, a strike in the NBA could happen during the 1995-96 season.

The American sporting public has shown that it does have a limit with regards to how much it will take.

With last year’s strike, baseball saw merchandise revenue drop from $2.5 billion in 1993 to $2.1 billion last year.

With that being the case, look for all four leagues to start taking more of their hardware outside U.S. boundaries. Merchandise sales outside the U.S. have grown every year since 1990.

The NFL made $350 million in international retail sales last year; the NBA made $300 million; MLB made $190 million and the NHL made $22 million outside the U.S.

In Mexico and parts of Central America, the Dallas Cowboys are more than just “America’s Team.”

Former Dallas Cowboys president Tex Schramm tapped into the region’s sports market in the ‘70s. Cowboys merchandise can be found from Tijuana, Mexico, to Tegucigalpas, Honduras.

Europe is also proving to be a haven for NFL merchandise, as the league now schedules two to four preseason games in London and Berlin. Preseason games have been played in Tokyo in recent years, as well.

The NBA has made merchandising inroads in Africa with the help of players like Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets, whose hometown is Lagos, Nigeria, and the Denver Nuggets’ Dikembe Mutombo, who hails from Kinsasha, Zaire.

Major League Baseball has always had a strong legion of fans in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and some of the northernmost countries in South America.

The NHL has been able to capitalize on markets in Eastern Europe and Russia as a result of the players in that league that come from those regions.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BIG SELLERS Professionals Pro sports 1994 team rankings by sales. NFL 1. Dallas Cowboys 2. San Francisco 49ers 3. Kansas City Chiefs 4. Miami Dolphins 5. Raiders 6. New York Giants 7. Green Bay Packers 8. Carolina Panthers 9. Minnesota Vikings 10. Pittsburgh Steelers

NBA 1. Charlotte Hornets 2. Chicago Bulls 3. Orlando Magic 4. Phoenix Suns 5. New York Knicks 6. Seattle SuperSonics 7. Toronto Raptors 8. Golden State Warriors 9. Houston Rockets 10. Denver Nuggets

Major League Baseball 1. Colorado Rockies 2. Atlanta Braves 3. Chicago White Sox 4. Florida Marlins 5. New York Yankees 6. Cleveland Indians 7. Philadelphia Phillies 8. Chicago Cubs 9. Texas Rangers 10. San Francisco Giants

NHL 1. Anaheim Mighty Ducks 2. Chicago Blackhawks 3. New York Rangers 4. Detroit Red Wings 5. Pittsburgh Penguins 6. San Jose Sharks 7. Boston Bruins 8. St. Louis Blues 9. Florida Panthers 10. Los Angeles Kings Source: Team Licensing Business Magazine, June 1995

Colleges Favorite football teams 1. Notre Dame (8.2 percent) 2. Penn State (5.1) 3. Michigan (3.5) 4. Ohio State (2.5) 5. Miami (2.2) 6. Florida State (2) 6. Nebraska (2) 8. Alabama (1.5) 8. Texas A&M (1.5) 10. Florida (1.4) 11. Washington (1.2) 11. Michigan State (1.2) Source: ESPN Chilton Sports Poll, 1994 Profile of Sports in America. (Based on the results of 3,316 participants polled between Oct. 4, 1994 Jan 2, 1995. Margin of error: + or - 2.5 percent.)

Favorite basketball teams 1. Duke (4.7 percent) 2. North Carolina (3.8) 3. Michigan (3.5) 4. Kentucky (2.4) 5. Indiana (2.1) 6. Arkansas (1.4) 6. Georgetown (1.4) 6. UCLA (1.4) 9. Ohio State (1.2) 10. Notre Dame (.9) Source: ESPN Chilton Sports Poll, 1994 Profile of Sports in America. (Based on the results of 3,316 participants polled between Oct. 4, 1994 Jan 2, 1995. Margin of error: + or - 2.5 percent.)