The following is the top ten teams in sale of licensed
merchandise, from the MLB commissioner's office. This is based
on sales from January '95.
1. White Sox 6. Red Sox
2. Rockies 7. Indians
3. Braves 8. Phillies
4. Yankees 9. Reds
5. Marlins 10. Mariners
The Rockies dropped from the top spot. The White Sox moved
from three to one, the Yankees moved up one, and the Marlins
dropped from No. 4 to 5. The team making the biggest jump was
the Red Sox, who jumped from No. 15 to 6. Overall domestic sales
of MLB merchandise dropped from $2.5B in '93 to $2.1B in '94 due
to the strike (THE DAILY).
COMING SOON TO THE TOP 10? The NBA Suns' team shops were
the first outlet to offer Diamondbacks merchandise, and 24 hours
after Phoenix was awarded an MLB team the stores were "moving
about 500 T-shirts an hour." After five days, they had sold over
8,000 shirts and 1,000 caps, according to Scott Blanford, Suns
Dir of Merchandise. MLBP VP/Design Anne Occi says the
Diamondback logo with turquoise, black, copper and purple, is
consistent with fans' tastes (Jeff Smyth, ARIZONA BUSINESS
GAZETTE, 3/23 issue).
