Jul 11, 2011
Sports labor issues expected to affect licensed merchandise sales
This story came through via the (excellent) LIMA Smartbrief on Thursday, but we’re just getting to it now: Crain’s New York reports that area retailers could lose up to $5.5 million in licensed merchandise sales if the NFL and NBA lockouts persist.
Foot Locker and adidas are the most vulnerable parties, according to the report, due to their licensing relationships with the leagues. Other retailers might take a small hit, but could possibly recoup the losses with sales of generic or NCAA-branded merchandise, according to the article.
It is this blog’s position that there is no good reason that the sports leagues can’t solve their problems in time to play, given that sports owners are orchestrating the lockouts in both cases. The day this blog believes that sports owners are losing money hand over fist, it will eat an officially licensed cap.
—Bryan Joiner
[...] about how sports labor issues in the NFL (though that seems on its way to a resolution) and NBA might affect licensed product sales, but we haven’t talked about how it could affect deals and dealmaking. If there’s no [...]