Buffalo Sabres set incredible merchandise record one week into 2013
The Buffalo Sabres have put up some mind-boggling merchandise numbers just one week into the 2013 season. According to the team's official site, the Sabres have sold more merchandise in the first week of the current season than they did during the entire 2010-11 season.
The team's "Fan Appreciation Sale", which ran over the course of training camp before ending after Buffalo's first game, offered fans a chance to purchase merchandise for 50% off. The fans responded. Big time.
Wow. Maybe there should be a lockout every season. Interest seems to be at an all-time high in nearly every NHL city.
The report out of Buffalo mentions that the Sabres moved 50,000 pieces of merchandise in the season's first week alone. They've sold more than 8,000 jerseys and more than 9,000 hats.
Fans are showing up in record numbers, watching in record numbers, and evidently spending money on merchandise in record numbers. Sure, the 50% is responsible for the record, but the pure amount of hats, jerseys and other apparel sold likely blew past even the most optimistic of projections.
Fans love their hockey and they love cheap merchandise. It was a match made in heaven.
Photo courtesy of Buffalo's team site.
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I'm going to spend a minute being Debbie Downer here. This, along with the fact that the new CBA didn't actually fix the underlying problems for small and mid-market teams, is essentially a guarantee that we'll be doing the lockout thing again at the earliest possible opt-out opportunity, unless something incredible comes along in the way of league-wide revenue (another, larger TV contract, for instance).
I'll try not to let that ruin my enjoyment of the hockey that's actually being played, but frankly, it's going to be in the back of my mind until it happens eight years from now.
