Are you ready for some jersey sales? NFL trumping NBA
National Basketball Association stars Tim Duncan and Tony Parker have guided their San Antonio Spurs into the Finals, while Miami Heat superstar LeBron James is getting prime time attention on TV as he tries to help his team into the sport’s championship series.
While the NBA playoffs occupy the sports universe’s center stage in the U.S., at Uniform Sports, a popular sports merchandise store at Las Vegas Premium Outlets South, the sales of jerseys of popular NFL players who have switched teams in the off-season are actually outpacing sales of the big-time NBA players.
“On any given day, we sell more NFL jerseys than NBA jerseys and we’re in the middle of the NBA playoffs,” said Bruce Mianecki, owner of Uniform Sports.
Even with NBA All Stars like Duncan and Heat superstars James and Dwyane Wade drawing media attention, Las Vegas sports fans apparently are still hooked on the National Football League, which is in a lull between the player draft event and pre-season training camps.
The hottest seller is not a James jersey. Beating James at the Uniform Sports cash register are the jerseys of NFL stars who have switched teams such as Wes Welker of the Denver Broncos, Percy Harvin of the Seattle Seahawks and Mike Wallace of the Miami Dolphins, Mianecki said.
“There’s renewed excitement in the NFL and people are ready for the NFL,” he said. “The NFL has a 12-month selling season and they’re a marketing machine.”
The Harvin and Welker jerseys bearing the players’ new teams are also popular nationally.
Joanna Hunter, an NFL spokeswoman, said that of the top 25 player jerseys sold on NFLShop.com since April 1, both Harvin and Welker landed in the top 25.
The Harvin jersey ranked 22nd in sales, while sales of Welker’s jersey ranked 24th, she said. NFLShop.com is the league’s official, online store.
Well-known NFL players on new teams are great for merchandise sales because fans want the newest, said Scott Becher, executive vice president and managing director for sports and entertainment at Z Group Advertising Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“A key to quick licensing sales success is change — new team, new logo, even new colors,” Becher said. “So when a superstar changes teams, the first winner is typically the cash register.”
Mianecki also noted that high-profile NBA teams are no longer in the playoffs such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks. That means less star power, which translates into decreased NBA jersey sales, he said.
The only teams left are the Spurs, which represent the Western Conference in the Finals — and the Indiana Pacers and Heat, which are dueling in the Eastern Conference Finals.
“In the NBA, it’s more about players and I don’t anyone who can name three players playing for Indiana,” Mianecki said. “Even Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili on the Spurs are not perceived as superstars like some of the NFL stars.”
Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273.
