Deep discounts for shoppers as Sports Authority ends its run starting Sunday

The final buzzers will begin sounding for Sports Authority on Sunday as its Cherry Hill sporting-goods store closes for good.

Other Sports Authority stores will soon follow. The one in Langhorne, Bucks County, on East Lincoln Highway, will close sometime in August.

The retailer's predicament reflects the broader trend of bricks-and-mortar stores struggling against the migration of shoppers to the internet.

Competitive sports may be cutthroat, but sports retailing is too, experts say.

"Sports Authority had seriously large debt issues, but their bigger problem was not adapting and separating themselves from the other big-box retailers like Dick's," said Mark Torres of the Play It Again Sports chain in Deptford, about 12 miles from the Cherry Hill Sports Authority store. It hopes to capture some of SA's customers. "People couldn't really identify any real difference between the two companies, and this proved to be fatal for SA."

It's also a field littered with a lot of players - from market leader Dick's Sporting Goods to the new line of female athletic clothes sold by Fabletics, an online subscription retailer that is pitched by actress Kate Hudson.

Others, such as Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's, have further splintered the market with their wide selection of outdoor gear.

Shoppers at least will benefit from deep discounts at all SA stores as they prepare for lights out.

Sports Authority, which filed for bankruptcy protection three months ago, is shuttering all 460 of its stores.

The sports retailer had originally planned to close about 140 stores, but in a court document last month, it outlined plans to shutter all of them.

The company, based in Englewood, Colo., said it would be discounting sneakers, clothing, and other goods through the end of August as part of its liquidation.

Sports Authority told the bankruptcy court that it would also sell its store leases in an auction.

Company spokeswoman Wendy LaHaye declined to comment Thursday on other store closure dates. Area stores include locations in Abington; Allentown; East Brunswick, N.J.; and Wilmington.

As of March, the company had about 14,500 employees.

CEO Michael Foss issued a statement May 20 when the company announced that all stores would be closing. He noted that Sports Authority and its predecessors had been serving customers since 1919.

"It is with great sadness that we are intending to close all of our stores by the end of August," Foss said. "We will be holding store closing sales at all of our locations that will allow you to take advantage of big discounts on great brands."

The company has been choking from debt since a $1.3 billion leveraged buyout a decade ago by the private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners. It has more than $1.1 billion in debt.

It missed a critical interest payment earlier this year and in March filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

While initially optimistic that it would attract buyers, none came forward in time to salvage the company.

Longtime customer Aquera Brown, 25, of Camden, was at the Cherry Hill store two weeks ago and bought discounted sweat pants. Most items in the store are 20 percent to 40 percent off.

Brown said she was aware that the Cherry Hill store was closing and had come to terms with having to travel farther to ones in Mount Laurel or Turnersville for her sports-apparel needs.

She learned Thursday that all SA stores were closing.

"Oh, wow. I had no idea," said Brown, who works in marketing for Target at the same Hillview Shopping Center where the Cherry Hill Sports Authority is located.

"I'm sad that I have to go somewhere else to shop," she said. "This was really convenient having one here. I often go after work or during my lunch break."

When a big-box retailer collapses, all of that real estate has to be filled again. A store's closure can lessen traffic to a shopping center.

Among those charged with finding new tenants for some of the region's Sports Authority locations is Todd Sussman, senior vice president of retail for Colliers International, who is based in Center City.

"I'm working with tenants and owners of these locations to backfill these spaces as they are prime opportunities for retailers," he said.

That's no small task, given an SA store averages close to 40,000 square feet.

"Larger spaces always have fewer potential tenants to take that space," he said, "especially a specified use like sporting goods that must fit nicely without duplicating uses into the center. Backfilling with a noncompeting use in the same center can make it even harder or allow fewer options."

Sussman said he's been keeping a close eye on Sport Authority for more than six months.

"Since the first grumblings of bankruptcy in February, we have been actively searching out opportunities," he said.

sparmley@phillynews.com

215-854-4184@SuzParmley