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inor League Base ball (MiLB) is an easily
accessible source of entertainment for
fans of America’s past time. According to
Street and Smith’s Sports Business Daily, the minor
leagues averaged 4,051 fans per game through July
13, 2008. Although that attendance was slightly off
record-setting numbers in the three previous years,
it still points to baseball’s popularity—and the need
for merchandise to satisfy fans hungry for souvenirs
of their favorite teams.
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Ray Fieldhouse, assistant general manager
of operations for the Midland Rock
Hounds, an affiliate of the Oakland
Athletics. Fieldhouse is among the buyers
who participates in a heavily attended
baseball tradeshow each December.
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Baseballs, bats, gloves, pennants and other
items are a fun way for fans of the Corpus
Christi Hooks to remember the season. Two
shops serve fans of the team and also of the
Round Rock Express. Both are affiliates of
the Houston Astros.
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At the plate or in the retail shop, timing is key.
MiLB merchandise directors must get a jump-start
on the season with pre-planning and early ordering.
“We prepare for our upcoming season before our
current season even ends,” says Brooke Milam,
director of retail, Ryan Sanders Baseball of the
Corpus Christi Hooks and the Round Rock
Express, affiliates of the Houston Astros. Milam’s
two stores combined for more than a million and a
half in retail sales in 2007. She notes that in June
of this year, she worked with a vendor
to design a cap which she
ordered in August to ensure delivery
in early April, when the season gets
underway. Orders for items produced
overseas—especially caps—is
critical. Donna Grunow, director of
merchandising for the Lake Elsinore
Storm, an affiliate of the San Diego
Padres, says such orders have to be
placed early to account for lost production
time over the Chinese New
Year holiday.
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Jim Beck, director of merchandising
for the Wilmington Blue
Rocks, an affiliate of the Kansas
City Royals, tracks customer purchases
and uses the information as
a guide for reordering.
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The popularity of Storm merchandise
presents an interesting conundrum
for Grunow. More than 300
Little League teams across the nation
use the Storm’s logo in their uniforms,
T-shirts and novelties.
“We’re in a unique situation
because we sell so much on the Web
and over the phone to teams across
the nation. We pretty much have to
keep the store full of inventory year
round.”
Craig Katz, manager of Souvenir
Sales and Service for the Toledo
Mud Hens, an affiliate of the
Detroit Tigers, is in a similar position.
His off-season consists of marketing
the Mud Hen’s two stores,
The Swamp Shop and the Hen
Hut, as well as the team’s web store.
“Our physical stores are open all
year round and, of course, so is the
web site. At this time of year, I order
cold weather gear and items for the radio to remind fans to
do their holiday shopping
with the Mud
Hens.” For Katz and
Grunow, and for other
MiLB retailers, the offseason
offers no downtime.
Choices about merchandise
are not left to
chance. Katz says he
spends “a large amount
of time” consulting
reports generated from
the store’s Point of Sale
system throughout the
season to see what is selling well. Jim Beck, director
of merchandising for the Wilmington Blue Rocks,
an affiliate of the
Kansas City Royals,
handles all of his ordering
in the off-season
and bases merchandise
decisions on the previous
season’s sales and
leftover inventory.
“Some products, like
fitted hats,” he says,
“are always used and I
reorder them.” Other
items, like T-shirts,
Beck changes every
year.
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A customer takes a look at a
pink women’s Corpus Christi
Hooks shirt. Preplanning and
early ordering are key retail strategies
to prepare for the season.
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Corpus Christi Hooks apparel is
well lit in this display. A new cap
will debut in the team’s stores in
early April 2009.
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When it comes to
identifying merchandise,
retailers are limited
to using licensed vendors approved by MiLB
Beck explains, “If an item
has our logo on it and we
sell it in our stores, the
league is pretty strict about
who we can order from.”
He has established relationships
with approved vendors,
who send him mockups
of designs each year
from which he chooses
products.
There is some leeway for
creativity, however, as noted by Donna Grunow,
who says she scans malls and catalogs for clothing
and novelty ideas, and borrows display formats from
those sources as well. “We actually built on our
California presence and created a beach-themed display
in our store.” Brooke Milam pays close attention
to the collegiate market,
which she calls “fashion
forward” and “a good
way to predict what will sell
in the minor league market.”
Craig Katz does a
“good amount” of research
into fashion and sports
trends, looking beyond
baseball. “We talk to other
clubs to see what unique
products sold well for
them.”
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A Toledo Mud Hens store packed with customers. The
team, an affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, has two year-round
stores and a web shop.
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The “destination point”
for viewing MiLB merchandise is one of two baseball
trade shows held annually in September and Decem -
ber. The September show, the smaller of the two,
features 40 to 50 vendors. The December event,
known as the Baseball Trade Show, is held in conjunction with two and a half
days of winter baseball meetings.
Ray Fieldhouse, assistant
general manager of operations
for the Midland Rock Hounds,
an affiliate of the Oakland
Athletics, says, “Almost all the
merchandise buyers for minor
or major league teams are
there.” Fieldhouse, whose
store’s annual sales have
increased every year since 2002
to $209,000 in 2007, calls the
experience “neat.” Craig Katz
says the December trade show is
“educational, because in one
exhibition hall, merchandise
directors can see almost all of
the licensed vendors and see
what new and exciting products
they have to offer. It’s great to
compare products between the
licensees to make an educated
decision on which ones to purchase.”
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Top: The shop for the Round Rock Express Baseball
Club in Round Rock, Texas, even features an
Animaland plush stuffing machine, which is shown
in the rear of this photo.
Bottom: Shoppers have dozens of cap choices to choose
from in this Round Rock Express Baseball Club
store display.
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Retailers use the trade
show to view items predicted
to be top sellers for the coming
year. Brooke Milam says,
“There is always one item I
know will be a big hit each
year. One example is the
baseball bracelet by
Gamewear. This upcoming
season we are carrying
reusable shopping bags,
which are a very trendy item
right now. I expect those to
be a huge hit.”
In addition to planning,
ordering and preparing for
the arrival of new merchandise,
MiLB retailers also
need to unload old inventory.
Strategies for clearing out
inventory focus on the old
stand-by, the sales rack. “We
do a basic clearance table all
year,” says Fieldhouse. “We
have signage directing customers
to a small area of
the store where we keep
last season’s items.” Donna
Grunow handles her sale
items in a similar fashion.
Craig Katz’s clearance
begins in mid-August, just
after the conclusion of the
season. “We tamper off on
re-orders and push inventory
we still have large quantities
of,” he notes. “We
will have multiple showings
in our stores of items
we want to push, which
works well partially due to
our store being open yearround
and the popularity
of our Internet store.”
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Top: Children try on whimsical hats for size at the Toledo Mud
Hens’ Swamp Shop. Radio and television ads in the off season
remind fans to visit the team’s stores for holiday gifts.
Bottom: Shoppers have a broad choice of T-shirt colors and designs in
this Toledo Mud Hens store display.
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Again, timing is key.
“We don’t want to put
items on sale too early in
the season, in case they can
sell at their original retail
price and so they won’t prevent
other items from selling
just because they have a
lower price,” says Brooke
Milam. Milam’s strategy for
clearance focuses on advertising
low selling items by
distributing flyers at games.
“Almost every time the sale
item was announced, we
saw an increase in our store
traffic, and many of the
items sold out that night.”
Jim Beck notes, however,
that, in some cases, items
may be carried over from
year to year. Beck explains
that on one cold game day,
he pulled some sweatshirts,
once sluggish sellers, out
of storage. The sweatshirts
were an instant hit that
night.
Beck’s move is reminiscent
of a baseball team
manager taking advantage
of a scoring opportunity
by substituting a pinch hitter
in the bottom of the
ninth. Ultimately, Minor
League Baseball retail sales
echoes the game it promotes.
The keys to success:
a well-thought out strategy,
on target timing and
knowledge of stats,
whether it’s last season’s
sales or up and coming hot
sellers.
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