The excitement around Knicks G Jeremy Lin has “quieted down in all sorts of ways” off the court, according to Zach Schonbrun of the N.Y. TIMES. Cosby Sporting Goods’ location near MSG has seen sales of Lin T-shirts go “from an average of 70 per day to only a handful as of last Friday.” Cosby’s had been stocked with six variations of Lin T-shirts, but many have been “replaced by Rangers gear and early baseball merchandise.” Store Manager Jim Root said, “As long as they still make T-shirts, we’ll continue to bring them in. They’re just now going to be coming in the same way other players' were.” Schonbrun notes Modell’s Sporting Goods’ Times Square location still has a “front corner of the store … almost solely dedicated to Lin shirts and jerseys.” However, a store manager said that while demand “remains solid ... not as many customers are showing up as before.” The Duane Reade’s locations in Midtown Manhattan were selling Lin pennants, flags and bumper stickers this week “with yellow labels marking them down half price.” Also, Lin trading cards have now “flooded the market at more reasonable prices.” NBA Dir of Marketing Communications Amanda Thorn said that Lin’s No. 17 jersey “remains the top seller” both at the NBA Store in N.Y. and at NBAStore.com. Thorn added that since early February, NBAStore.com “has shipped Lin merchandise to 24 countries outside the United States.” Meanwhile, Nike is still “reportedly in the process of producing a Lin-themed shoe” (N.Y. TIMES, 3/16).
CLASS-ACTION SUIT AGAINST TWC: The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's Eriq Gardner noted in an "amended class action, a group of plaintiffs demand” that Time Warner Cable “reimburse them" for more than $5M in service fees and charges for withholding programming during the carriage dispute with MSG. The named plaintiff is Harold Hoffman, “who says he was induced on the phone” by a TWC rep to sign up in ‘08 for service “with the promise he would receive programming on the MSG and MSG+ networks.” He signed up for TWC, “and when the games were taken off the air for 49 days beginning at the beginning of this year, he couldn't deduct from his billing statement the component of charges” for MSG and MSG+. The suit was filed on behalf of “all similarly situated individuals for redress” (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 3/15).
