Panthers ready to go truckin’

Fresh off a Super Bowl trip that drove surging demand for their merchandise, the Carolina Panthers are turning to a decidedly local custom to capitalize on the fresh sales opportunity.

Beginning with the new season, the Panthers will trot out a 32-foot-long NASCAR-style merchandise truck, bedecked in team and NFC championship logos. The club expects at least a quarter-million dollars of business a season to rush through the single trailer, a staple in the NASCAR culture.

Team officials will be in Rockingham, N.C., this weekend at the Subway 400 Nextel Cup Series race to kick tires, so to speak, as they view the trailers in action.

The Dallas Cowboys have already rolled out their own NASCAR-style merchandise trailer.

"The people in Charlotte understand the souvenir business; it won't be new to them," said Fred Wagenhals, founder of Action Performance Cos., a NASCAR replica car maker that owns 52 trailers that generated $55 million last year. "They will know exactly what they are looking for."

Wagenhals said he met with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder two years ago when they came to Action's Phoenix headquarters to learn more about trailer merchandising. As in NASCAR, there are a limited number of event days in football, creating pent-up demand, Wagenhals said.

In Charlotte, the team nearly pulled the trigger for the trailer in time for this year's postseason, said Todd Smoots, assistant director of food, beverages and merchandise.

"One of our problems here is our team store is located on one corner of the stadium, so it's a problem if you want some merchandise and are coming through on the other side," he said.

The trailer will be at all home games, travel to training camp in South Carolina and perhaps to other parts of the Carolinas when the Panthers run promotional events.