The Stanley Cup Final matchup between ever-popular Pittsburgh and newcomer Nashville is fueling team merchandise sales, despite a shortage in jerseys created by a coming change in suppliers.
Through Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final last Monday, in-arena sales were up 12 percent over last year’s Pittsburgh-San Jose series, and both franchises have established record per caps.
All that as the team jerseys, the highest-priced items at merchandise stands, are essentially sold out.
The NHL knew more than a year ago that jerseys could be in short supply for this final as the deal wound down with league licensee Reebok, said Jim Haskins, NHL group vice president of consumer products licensing. Adidas takes Reebok’s place as part of a seven-year agreement starting next season.
“It’s quite a balancing act when you’re essentially turning off one spigot and turning another one on at the same time,” Haskins said. “When you’re doing the booking, you have to look at the possible outlooks — what if it doesn’t go well? The great news is that we’re sold out.”
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Predators jerseys were plentiful on fans but in short supply at in-arena merchandise stands.
Photo by: NATHAN MORGAN / NASHVILLE BUSINESS JOURNAL
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Carlos Bernal, president of Delaware North Sportservice, the in-stadium merchandiser at Bridgestone Arena, said that the per caps during the Stanley Cup Final are up five times compared with what is normally seen during regular-season games. The rest of the playoffs saw per caps more than double the regular season, with increases coming each round, an indication that the lack of jerseys to sell hasn’t dampened fans’ interest in spending.
“The decision made to change the jersey manufacturer clearly is what it is, but quite frankly with the numbers we are seeing, the enthusiasm for all the products have more than made up for that,” Bernal said. “Ultimately does it hurt sales? It’s hard to say, but I think people have their jerseys from the season and now want what’s new and unique.”
Haskins said the league’s busiest sales period for merchandise is the November-to-January holiday season, especially for the sales of jerseys, knit hats and sweatshirts. At this point, though, T-shirts and collector’s items around the Stanley Cup are among the most popular. The team-record per caps in Nashville and Pittsburgh have been driven by Cup merchandise such as matchup hats, shirts and pucks, as well as hot-market items in Nashville with the “Smashville” tagline and images of catfish, which Predators fans loft onto the ice at games as a slimy salute to their team.
Adidas plans to introduce next season’s jerseys at an event June 20 ahead of the NHL’s expansion and entry drafts. While the jerseys will not be available to the public for sale immediately, preorders will be taken. Haskins said bookings from retailers are already trending well.
Nashville, in its first trip to the final, has been the big story for the league on the merchandise side, and Haskins credited the team’s executives and marketing staff for their work in building fan appeal. Compared to other markets that were new to the Stanley Cup Final in recent years, such as San Jose in 2016, Nashville’s sales are 67 percent higher.
Even for Pittsburgh, which is in its second straight Stanley Cup Final, there was enthusiasm for the merchandise. Penguins President and CEO David Morehouse said the team is up in every business category compared with last year, including overall merchandise sales and per caps. While the Penguins still do have limited jersey inventory left in-arena, Morehouse said he hopes the team’s T-shirt giveaway for every home game makes up the fact that some fans can’t find a jersey to buy. “If and when we do run out of inventory, we’d like to think we’re giving them a free yellow-gold jersey when they come in the door,” Morehouse said.
■ MORE TV FOR PREDS … : The Predators have caught fire on TV, including posting a 28.0 local rating for Game 4 on NBC, a hockey record for the Nashville market. Those strong ratings have caught the eye of NBC, which featured the team only twice on national broadcasts during the regular season, down from four the previous year. Jon Miller, president of programming at NBC Sports Group, said they “have earned their way on” to more broadcasts next year, based on how the team has performed and the fans’ response.
■ … BUT LESS FOR LEAGUE: While the league and NBC are still working on its broadcast schedule for next season, Miller noted that with NHL players not taking part in the Olympics, the network ultimately will feature the league much less during that 16-day span in February.
“It’s going to be a time when we’re focused on the Olympics,” Miller said. Between the start of the opening ceremony and the end of the Games, it will be “hard to figure out how the NHL fits in that time frame,” he said.
