The Recession: Now effecting sports merchandising

Posted on January 12th, 2009. Written by Emmett Jones.

So that whole recession thing…its not going away, is it?

The Atlanta Falcons have decided to close their Falcons365 stores in the Lennox Mall and Perimeter Mall areas.  More information from AtlantaFalcons.com,

“While the economy is certainly affecting all retailers, we are making this decision mainly based on our desire to focus our efforts on our online and Georgia Dome sales,” said Falcons President Rich McKay.  “Theses venues allow us to serve the broadest number of Falcons fans, as evidenced by the results of our recent enhancements to falcons365.com, and our sales experience in the Dome this season.”

Okay, I certainly am not the smartest person in the world, but did Rich McKay really just say that the Falcons closed two physical stores not because of the recession, but because they needed to focus more people on the Georgia dome and online sales because they serve more fans that way? Is that about right?  In the recession?  Did some recent internal Altanta Falcons meeting end with this statement?

“Online sales are just too overwhelming. All of you physical store employees need to quit working at these physical stores so you can help fill these online orders!  Um…yes, I know that the online sites basically run themselves, and that you physical store workers won’t be any help but…These online sales are too overwhelming!”

–Rich McKay, Atlanta Falcons President

Seriously, that’s really the excuse they’re gonna use?  Are they really going to insult the fans intelligence?  Apparently, yes.

The decision to close the retail stores was also because the Falcons organization has seen sales increase at the Georgia Dome and at its online store, said Kim Shreckengost, executive vice preisdent [sic] and chief of staff for the Falcons.

“Given our season, it made more sense for us to focus on online sales from our Web site, which has recently been enhanced, and to make sure we were focusing on sales on game days,” Shreckengost said.

Even with the logic posited by Falcons upper management, this still seems like a move predicated on the recession, moreso than a need to focus on an over abundance of online and Georgia Dome sales.  Most football merchandise is sold during the football season, which is inexplicably (or due to the recession, maybe not so much so) the same time that the Falcons chose to close their physical locations…while their team was in the playoffs.  That sounds like a recession issue to me, especially when the Falcons new website has significantly reduced order processing time and the necessity for human labor.

Of course, there has already been a push by professional sports teams to drive fans to their websites for merchandise sales and exclusive content (hence the site re-design of the Falcons, and recent site redesigns by the NHL, NFL, and MLB).  But this move, seems like its little more than the recession claiming yet another victim.

AtlantaFalcons.com:  Falcons 365 stores to close

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