Highest Selling Sports Merchandise?

[schtee]

Anybody know where we can see rankings of the highest selling merchandise in each sport? ESPN recently reported that the yanks and red sox, combined, account for a staggering 53% of all baseball merch sold, I'm curious to see a complete rankings to see what works and what doesn't.

Obviously winning has a huge part to do with what teams sell (remember when everyone rocked cowboys gear in the mid-90's like it was their job?), but aesthetics have to play some part.

[Anomalied]

psssh, pisses me off.

I do this thing at school where I walk up to guys wearing Yankee or Red Sox hats and start asking them questions about the team. ("What do you think about the Randy Johnson trade?", "Remind me, who plays centerfield?") Some of their answers are hilarious.

[Cujo]

The Yanks have the least knowledgable fans of all. Most of them just like a winner (even if it costs them $150M more than the avearge MLB team ...almost cheating) so they simply jump on the Yankee bandwagon. Pathetic but very true.

[DGivens87]

psssh, pisses me off.

I do this thing at school where I walk up to guys wearing Yankee or Red Sox hats and start asking them questions about the team. ("What do you think about the Randy Johnson trade?", "Remind me, who plays centerfield?") Some of their answers are hilarious.

I hate that too...especially where I live...u see someone wearing a Sox hat, and the only thing they can tell you about the team is that they play in "Fenway Stadium" lol

even worse...after the Sox finally won it all last year, dressing up as a Sox player became VERY popular at Halloween...

"Sorry guys, bandwagon's full..get back to me when you've endured the season-ending heartbreak, the September meldowns, the boneheaded managerial moves and lousy trades"

[rmackman]

Due to the losing, when the Brewers finally do win one in the year 2060, I'll be proud to say I was there through it all. However, I guess I'm a bit spoiled also being a Marlins fan b/c I've seen two championships in 10 years. It's funny though, when the Marlins went to the series in '03 the ballpark got packed for every game the 2nd half of the year. All of these people in Dontrelle Willis jerseys or Pudge Rodriguez jerseys.

You'd ask these fans "where were you after they dismantled the Marlins in '97?" Oh I was still a fan I just didn't have time to come to the games. Okay whatever. Or I'd be in conversation and say something like, this team is fun but I still kind of miss the orignal Marlins when it was new. And they'd be like YEAH, CHARLES JOHNSON WAS A GOOD CATCHER! And I'd be like umm...Yeah he was in '97...but in '93 it was Benito Santiago. Then I'd get this look like who is that?

I'm a bit embarassed to be in FL in the sense that fans down here only support the local teams when they win. Otherwise they revert back to their hometown teams or just the Yankees. I support the Marlins and Brewers equally. When they play each other, I root for whoever is the home team. Anyways, that's my gripe for today.

Interesting fact about Florida...at our current pace, by 2030 Florida will be the 3rd largest state in the USA by population. 40% of that population will be senior citizens. They didn't say this but I'd be willing to bet at least another 20% will be latin people who can't speak english at all. So Florida will be made up of 90 year old Cubans! WOOHOO! Maybe it'll be like Escape from New York in the sense that in the movie, NY was a giant prison. So maybe Florida will just be only a retirement state. You won't be allowed to live here if you're young.

[Pharos04]

i agree with the whole bandwagoneering thing. Some of those people claim to be lifelong fans and as proven, you ask them any basic knowledge and they can't get anything right. I will admit i haven't been a fan since birth. I knew of the existance of the sports teams in Boston but never really got into it like as passionately as i am now. Biggest thing I ever wanted to do is go to a Celtics game to see Bird play which died as soon as he retired. I will admit that i started to like the Patriots back in 1997 for SB XXXI. but i've followed them and loved them since. Same with the Sox: Started Loving them around 98-99 and again, have been with them since. I may not have baby pictures of me in a Joe Pat onesy but i do cherish and support my teams now through the rough parts and the disappointments and of course through the best things possible. I can remember back in 2002 after SB XXXVI i met some dude while in Texas and he was like "Yeah man the Patriots rock" i was like "Do you what city they play in?" he was like "boston?" i just walked away.

These bandwagoneers basically can't commit to one thing because it'd inevitable that there will be downfall. It's funny in New York because they've gotten so used to winning and dominating that anything less than perfect is disasterous and, as Steinbrenner stated, they aren't the "real Yankees" it's pathetic. it's the whole "yeah you can win 26 championships and countless pennants....but can you endure decades of torture and heartbreaking and year after year still return to show your support?" if they finish below the Sox this year...we'll see how many Yankee fans are truly loyal.

Point of this: BandWagoneers SUCK!!! lol OH yeah and back on the original topic of this thread...i admit that i contribute to the Red Sox merchandise selling

[Harmening]

I wear a Red Sox hat all of the time. You could quiz me about them, and I would get many of your questions wrong. I wear the hat because I like the looks of it. It's a simple, classic B. The navy and red don't clash with a lot of the clothes I wear. Too many hats these days have goofy looking different colored panels, or are just plastered with waaaay too much print.

[jWilson4mvp]

I got a Nats hat and can only name guys like Guillen, Vidro, and Livan Hernandez.

[Mac6674]

I'm a Raiders fan, and their merchandise is always a hot seller, so I feel that pain. That's why I went out of my way to get my authentic jersey with #40 Ritchie on it. At least someone who knows football will recognize that I'm not on the silver and black looks cool bandwagon. And being in Jersey, I see lots of people suddenly become Yankee fans. I was rocking my O's cap when I was 14 and we were 0-21.

[schtee]

interesting thread about bandwagons. there's a "big" yankee fan in my class who had absolutely no idea about jeffrey maier and the whole maier incident against the orioles.

but back to the original reason for the topic post, anybody know where to get rankings of all teams sales within a sport?

[mjrbaseball]

As a real Yankees fan, these "bandwagon" fans bother me too. Because people assume that I wear a Yankee cap only because its trendy.

They don't realize that I have been going to Yankee Stadium every year since 1967 (except for the two years at Shea). Or that I've endured far more losing seasons than championships during my lifetime.

It wasn't always Jeter and Bernie Williams and Giambi. Or Munson and Reggie. Sometimes the starting line-up had names like Horace Clarke, Tom Tresh and Celerino Sanchez. Or Mike Easler, Dan Pasqua and Jerry Mumphrey. Yes, they were all Yankee starters for significant amounts of time.

I actually started rooting for the Yankees during the worst season in their history. I didn't jump on the bandwagon when they started winning. And I don't jump off when they lose. I wear pinstripes and a navy blue cap with an interlocking NY. I am a Yankee fan now and forever.

Those of you who think it's cool to be a Yankee fan because they're a winning team, please go away.

[Mac the Knife]

I'll occasionally wear my Pittsburgh Pirates pillbox hat in public, which always draws a look but inevitably causes a fellow Buc fan to approach me.

Most of the time though I don't wear hats (despite owning around 400 I think), but when I do usually its something that most folks around here wouldn't immediately associate anything with - an Edmonton Eskimos one time, a High Desert Mavericks the next, a Chicago Blitz here, a Johnstown Chiefs there. Makes a statement of originality.

And despite having roughly 400 hats, I don't own a Yankee or Red Sox hat. Someday I might get one, but at the moment there are always others I want more.

[The_Admiral]

i met some dude while in Texas and he was like "Yeah man the Patriots rock" i was like "Do you what city they play in?" he was like "boston?" i just walked away.

Pshaw. Close enough.

[Audiodrama]

i met some dude while in Texas and he was like "Yeah man the Patriots rock" i was like "Do you what city they play in?" he was like "boston?"  i just walked away.

Pshaw. Close enough.

I actually agree with Pharos04 on that one. You're not a Pats fan if you've never heard of Foxboro. Too many bandwagon fans now that they've won 3 of the past 4 titles.

[pcgd]

Everyone in Chicago jumped on the Illinois Bandwagon this year. Whos Richard Keene? They'd have no idea.

But that's what chicago does. You'll start seeing alot of Sox fans this year as those blue cubs shirts from 2 years ago get put back into the closet and the black sox shirts come out. Alot of the bandwagon fans were girls from the suburbs, they were really annoying. Then you ask them who Ernie Banks is and they have no clue. But they know who Kyle Farnsworth is! In fact most of them still probably go to wrigley so they can see him....idiots.

Even though the cubs had ALOT of bandwagon followers 2 years ago, they still have one of the strongest fan bases, along with the Bulls and Bears.

I'm not a cubs fan (cardinals) and I know more than all of those bandwagon fans. Same with the Yankees and Red Sox.

[BucsBoy02]

I've lived in wisconsin since I was born, So obviously im surrounded with Packers here Packers there Packers Packers Packers... I never really watched football, but I think one of the first games I can remeber was the Buccaneers at Packers... and the Orange jerseys really caught my eye and stuck. So as far back as I can remeber Tampa Bay has been my team.

Before SB XXXVII I rarely ever saw anyone wearing anything football other than Green and Gold. But after I noticed a few more people here and there wearin a Buc's hat or jersey. I stopped and asked someone wearing an Alstott jersey at the mall one time if the Buc's were his favorite team and he said yes, then I asked Mike Alstott was his favorite player and he asked me who Mike Alstott was... kinda pissed me off.

But its kinda Ironic that there "Creamsicle" uniforms were what first got me to notice them. I wish they would wearin em for a game again just once, just for old time sake... But pull off a win in em.

[Discrim]

you must be up north or so...cus I know the closer to Chicago you get, the more Bears jerseys you'll see here adn there til you cross the border. you'll see some Ron Mexico jerseys , a surprising amount of Vikes and every now and then you may still see some mexicans wearing Cowboys jerseys.

[artvandelay]

This is always a good source...

http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/

[tmorss9]

great link, art... I usually ask "are you a fan, or is that a cool hat?"... I've had people admit that they didnt know that a real team wore that "NY", or thire name is Bob, and that was the nicest hat Lids had with a B on it.

[The_Admiral]

Then you ask them who Ernie Banks is and they have no clue. But they know who Kyle Farnsworth is! In fact most of them still probably go to wrigley so they can see him....idiots.

1. But he plays in Detroit now.

2. But you're still right. Oh man.