Red Sox World Series Win Producing Record Merchandise Sales

Red Sox DVD Already A Record-Setter

MLB’s official DVD commemorating the Red Sox’ World Series win hits stores November 23 and is “already guaranteed to break previous sales records for MLB Productions’ World Series DVD/video product,” according to Russell Adams of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Through the middle of last week, MLBP had received orders for 300,000 copies, which “exceeds the total sales of the previous best-selling DVD/video” from the Yankees’ World Series win in ’96 (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/15 issue).

RETIRING THE SIDE: In St. Pete, Jeff Harrington cited SportScanINFO data that indicates that since the Red Sox’ World Series victory, sales of the team’s merchandise hit $1.06M “in the south Atlantic region, which includes Florida,” compared to $240,300 in the year ago period following the Marlins’ World Series win. About $30M of Red Sox merchandise was sold nationally in the week following the World Series, up from $1.1M a year ago. But SportScanINFO Marketing Dir Neil Schwartz said, “There is nothing unprecedented about this. This is very typical of what we see when a team wins a major championship. ... The same thing happened with the Bucs [Super Bowl XXXVII win]” (ST. PETE TIMES, 11/15).