SI Prepares To Launch First Retail Store In Detroit Airport

Sports Illustrated To Open SI-Branded Store In New Terminal At Detroit Metro Airport

Sports Illustrated is scheduled to open an SI-branded store this month in the new terminal at Detroit Metro Airport, "extending its 54-year-old brand to retail for the first time," according to Terry Lefton in this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The 831-square-foot shop "will sell a variety of licensed merchandise bearing logos of local Michigan pro and college teams, as well as SI-branded publishing-oriented licensed goods, such as calendars, books and posters." The store is being launched "under a multiyear commitment with Delaware North Cos. and could serve as the prototype for similar locations, as new airport terminals open in [L.A.] and other markets during the next year." SI CMO Andrew Judelson said, "We invest the brand, they invest the capital." SI also gets "royalties on store sales." Judelson: "We've been approached to do SI restaurants, but that didn't fit our DNA. This seemed more appropriate" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 9/15 issue).

TRAVEL ZONES: USA Today tomorrow will open its first three Travel Zone retail stores at the new Detroit airport terminal. The stores will feature the paper's "familiar colored banners" and "will be divided into sections aligned with the newspaper's content." USA Today "plans to open a Travel Zone" at N.Y.'s JFK Int'l Airport, as well as two within Indianapolis Int'l Airport, by the end of the year (USA TODAY, 9/16).