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Friday, October 23, 2009

Phillies merchandise won't repeat sales success

As fun as it has been to follow the Philadelphia Phillies race to repeat as world champs, there’s one thing the team probably won’t duplicate: whopping merchandise sales.

Matt Powell, an analyst with SportsOneSource, which tracks the sporting goods industry, said sales of Phillies T-shirts, hats and other merchandise are “way off” from last year. But that’s a typical pattern for teams that produce multiple championships, he said.

While it’s too early for final figures, sales of Phillies merchandise for the last four weeks are down more than two-thirds versus last year, Powell said.

After all, how many Ryan Howard jerseys do you need?

Born in bad times

One of the counterintuitive factoids I’ve heard during this damaging downturn is that recessions are a great time to start a company.

To support the notion, some experts trot out Microsoft and Apple as examples of two that got their start during the malaise of the ’70s. However, not every small business becomes a household name with a market capitalization in the many billions of dollars.

I asked Dane Stangler, a senior analyst at the entrepreneurship think tank Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, about the unconventional wisdom. He said survival rates of companies born during the last four recessions are no different from those launched during economic expansions.

In fact, the United States pretty consistently creates about 500,000 new businesses every year, he said. Most of them don’t survive to see their fifth birthday, so the nation needs a steady rate of new-company formation.

This year is likely to be no different. Stangler projects that more than 500,000 people will plunge into the entrepreneurial soup in 2009.

Quotable

To me, Atlantic City is in a long-term death spiral. They just don’t have what they need to compete with the local-option slot machines that are cropping up all over the place.

Dennis I. Forst, gaming analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, in an interview Thursday about the casino industry on Bloomberg Radio.
Posted by Mike Armstrong @ 2:05 AM  Permalink | File Under: Consumer Products | | Small Business | 9 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:41 AM, 10/23/2009
    Phillies Merchandise. Last year, wife and I took R-5 train downtown, stopped at Modells and the line was long up and down the store - bought a New Era size 8 Phillies red hat! It was not a normal day at 7:30 am when people line up in Modells to buy merchandise on the day of hte parade! The craziness was way above top and we enjoyed it as it was a once in a lifetime experience for us that we might never experience it again! That is why people are not buying merchandise as they already bought their share last year! We were lucky to take the first R-5 train home as I sneaked us downstairs to the platform! Free train rides along as it was crowded like a train in India and we enjoyed it all the way home!
    — James
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:49 AM, 10/23/2009
    What the heck are you talking about James? That made no sense whatsoever.
    — Ed the Head
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:13 AM, 10/23/2009
    Watch that sales number change if they win this year.
    — pizano13
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:08 PM, 10/23/2009
    James- All that typing for a completely incoherent comment that made no sense whatsoever.
    — Ed the Head
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:05 PM, 10/23/2009
    Stop picking on James! If your going to be nitpicky, Ed the Head, you made your point with the first post....no need to post twice!
    — nmalone68
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:45 PM, 10/23/2009
    I guess it's to be expected when the uniforms and logo are the same as last year.Unless you have an endless supply of frontrunner fans
    — Mon
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:06 PM, 10/23/2009
    Great my laptop submitted my comment before i was done so it may not be understood.Oh well James and i can start a club.
    — Mon
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:16 AM, 10/25/2009
    If sales figures are down by 1/3 over last year, then by my figuring, it will be 2/3 in 2010, and down to zero in 2011. That could be the reason teams rarely repeat titles anymore.
    — Ed Circusitch
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:23 AM, 10/25/2009
    I also want to add, I would also join the James and Mon Club too. I would like Ed the Head to be the head of it.
    — Ed Circusitch


9 comments
About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
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