The NFL has "taken notice" of displaced fans and is
selling them licensed merchandise for out-of-town teams
through the Internet and catalogues, according to Curtis
Eichelberger of BLOOMBERG NEWS, who notes that so far, the
league has increased its Internet and catalogue merchandise
sales to $35M, up from about $10M last year. The NFL said
that "much of that has come" from the Internet, while it has
also mailed out eight million catalogues containing more
than 15,000 items this year. Cowboys COO Stephen Jones said
that the team earned $10.5M in retail sales last year, and
he projects revenue to reach $12.5M this season. Jones said
that the Cowboys earned about $2M selling merchandise on
game days, $2M from Internet and catalogue sales and about
$6.5M from the sales at the ten Cowboys team stores in area
malls. Meanwhile, Eagles VP/Business Operations Len
Komoroski said the team has focused on mall kiosks as
opposed to team stores to boost sales. He added that it
costs $40,000 to produce a catalogue for a database of
300,000 customers, and the "biggest growth" is from Internet
sales from out-of-town Eagles fans (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 11/10).
