Despite its reputation as a football school, royalties for the University of Florida from sales of men’s basketball national championship merchandise are expected to at least approach North Carolina’s marks from last year, a Collegiate Licensing Co. official said last week.
Joe Hutchinson, CLC’s senior director of university services, said Florida’s large alumni base will help sales, as will the prevalence of merchandise for the state school at retail outlets in large cities throughout Florida. He also noted the strength of the Gators brand: The Gators finished No. 8 in CLC’s royalties ranking for the second quarter of the fiscal year (Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2005), three spots behind the Tar Heels.
Hutchinson, who was on site at Florida’s campus in Gainesville last week, said Florida’s intake won’t likely match North Carolina’s but should surpass Maryland’s mark from 2002.
A Gainesville, Fla., department store last week sold out its stock of 7,000 products, Florida’s official on-campus bookstore sold 2,000 T-shirts the day after the title game, and Gatorzone.com sold 2,500 national title products in the first 48 hours of business, according to officials tracking those sales.
About 50 companies are licensed to produce Gators title products. Florida gets 15 percent of wholesale sales in royalties. CLC will report Florida’s early royalty revenue after CLC’s fiscal year ends June 30.
