By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
With the Vegas Golden Knights now a co-favorite to win the Stanley Cup, retail sales of licensed Golden Knights gear are soaring. LVSportsBiz.com gives you a whirlwind Top 10 tour through the Golden Knights licensed merchandise sales.
One: It’s official. Golden Knights merchandise sales are tops in the NHL, according to Knights Chief Marketing Officer Brian Killingsworth, who oversees retail sales of licensed logo gear. And the Golden Knights jersey is the top seller in the NHL.
Two: Golden Knights merch sales are global. Fanatics told the Golden Knights that their team merchandise has been purchased in 90 nations, Killingsworth said. The countries where people have bought Golden Knights logo gear range from the Philippines and Australia to Latvia and England.
Three: The 4,000-square-foot team store at the Golden Knights training center in Summerlin is so busy that the team had to hire 15 full-time workers.
Four: The team store, called The Arsenal, has 1,800 items for sale. And in some cases, the sales are so busy that some items are running out in three or four days, Killingsworth said.
Five: Women’s specialty clothing is a hot item at The Arsenal. Killingsworth said no less than 20 different women’s tops are for sale, including special women’s jerseys that are tapered to fit the female figure. He estimated a third of the sales in the team store are women’s items.
Six: An Adidas T-shirt with the message, “Create History,” is being sold league-wide and is available in The Arsenal. But it could easily be a T-shirt for the Golden Knights, a record-setting first-year expansion sports franchise. “For us, it has a double meaning,” Killingsworth noted. This is Adidas’ first year under a new multi-year partnership with the NHL to supply jerseys and licensed outerwear.
Seven: The hockey season’s most lucrative sales day at The Arsenal store was March 31, when the Golden Knights were selling the limited edition 28-by-20-inch posters that included smaller versions of the game day player posters. Only 702 were made and they sold for $70.20. (Later that day, the Golden Knights defeated the San Jose Sharks, 3-2, on a spectacular William Karlsson goal to clinch the Pacific Division.)
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Eight: The Golden Knights started selling limited edition commemorative tickets this week at the team shop. Only 2,018 were made and each sells for $20.18. (You might notice a certain 2018 theme there.)
Nine: Merch with the Stanley Cup logo that went on sale after the Golden Knights clinched a playoff position and commemorative pucks that celebrate Marc-Andre Fleury’s 400th career milestone win and Rounds 1, Kings and 2, Sharks ($8-$15) are hot sellers.
Ten: It wouldn’t be a Bill Foley business without a little touch of wine. The Golden Knights store includes wine glasses, cheese cutting boards, coaster series and cork-remover accessories. Foley, who also owns wineries in California, released a special Golden Knights wine during this season.
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