Univ. Of Florida, Ohio State Cashing In On Athletics Success
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Univ. Of Florida Cashing In On
National Championship Appearances |
With the Univ. of Florida’s (UF) men’s basketball team winning the national championship last season and the football team playing in the BCS championship game next Monday, school officials “predict that even a shot at the title ... is enough to continue filling school coffers with contributions and merchandise royalty dollars,” according to Sarah Talalay of the South Florida SUN-SENTINEL. UF took in $3.2M in royalties during the ’05-06 school year — including about $500,000 from basketball national championship merchandise — up 43% from $2.2M in ’04-05. UF gets an 8.5% royalty on the wholesale cost of licensed gear. For the fall quarter, before UF made the football title game, royalties were up almost 20% from a year ago. SportsOneSource Marketing Dir Neil Schwartz said that sales of UF merchandise last month were up 66% from a year ago. Sales of UF gear rank tenth among colleges. Ohio State (OSU), UF’s opponent in the BCS championship game, is No. 1 and its sales are up 133% from a year ago (SUN-SENTINEL, 1/2). OSU Licensing Dir Rick Van Brimmer said that the school, which gets an 8% royalty on the wholesale cost of licensed merchandise, “expects to bring in $1[M] more than the $5.7[M] generated last year” (BEACON JOURNAL, 1/2).
OUSTED: In Columbus, Mike Harden reported OSU terminated local retailer Mike DiSabato as a licensee after he raised questions about Nike’s “attempts to get an essentially exclusive sweetheart deal with the university” last month (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 12/31).
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Fans Making Run At
Boise State Merchandise
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FEELING BLUE: Following Boise State’s (BSU) Fiesta Bowl victory on Monday, Travis Hawkes, co-Owner of the Blue & Orange Store at Boise Towne Square mall, said that his store yesterday sold out of its 500 Fiesta Bowl championship hats before 2:00pm MT and was “well on its way to selling out of championship gear by the end of the night.” The store sold $25,000 worth of merchandise during the first two hours it was open, an amount that is “usually how much the store sells in one day on BSU game days.” In addition, the store received more than 350 online orders from Monday night through midday yesterday. Kim Thomas, Dir of BSU’s campus bookstore, said that his store “had sold about $20,000 worth of merchandise” by 1:00pm yesterday and received 300 Web orders yesterday morning (IDAHO STATESMAN, 1/4).
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