Superbowl Sized Sports Memorabilia Sales
Friday, February 02, 2007SUSIE GHARIB: It happens just once a year, football's premiere event, the Super Bowl. This year, the big game is on Sunday in south Florida and fans have already begun arriving there. 75,000 lucky ones will have bought a ticket in the stands. But many fans are buying other football and sports related items. As Jeff Yastine reports, the sports memorabilia industry is now a $2 billion business.
JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: For football buffs, it's as close to nirvana as one is likely to get -- the jerseys of pro football greats on display at the site of this weekend's Super Bowl game in Miami. And a few paces away, more memorabilia, available for a price, to fans like Eric Thompson.
ERIC THOMPSON, FAN, PORT ST. LUCIE, FL: It's always nice to get a little closer to the action and actual see and get your hands on a piece of actual history.
YASTINE: And this is where the $2 billion sports collectibles business takes on industrial-sized proportions. Dreams Inc. is one of the largest purveyors of licensed authentic sports memorabilia. Its CEO is Ross Tannenbaum.
ROSS TANNENBAUM, PRESIDENT & CEO, DREAMS INC.:
TANNENBAUM: What you see here, first of all, is a bunch of products that are signed by Colts players and Bears players, both current and past.
YASTINE: And in a world of just-in-time manufacturing, Tannenbaum has the goods lined up to cash in on the Super Bowl frenzy.
TANNENBAUM: We have right here, this is a helmet that's signed by Brian Urlacher (ph). We have now, this is the Peyton Manning jersey, again with the Colts logo and some pictures of Peyton and everything else. Again, top seller.
YASTINE: Tannenbaum says multiyear, multimillion-dollar autograph contracts are not uncommon for star sports figures. But for the Super Bowl, the stakes are high for Tannenbaum's company and the players.
TANNENBAUM: We'll start deciding who we want to build on if they are going to win. And then once we get down to two teams -- like we've done, this is the week, these past two weeks is when we will now go out and we will finalize deals with players. Mostly on an if/when basis, meaning that if they win, they'll get this much money. And if they don't, either we'll do a smaller deal or we won't do any deal at all.
YASTINE: Tannenbaum says even former greats like Bears legend Dick Butkus are also big earners. The Super Bowl lends itself to other kinds of autograph deals too.
TANNENBAUM: If you look, this is signed by every member of the championship Steelers team last year. Products like this do not get produced until the game is over and we have a winner. But we are already negotiating deals with all these players to be able to produce this product.
YASTINE: The sports memorabilia business has had its share of fakes and frauds, but Tannenbaum says such episodes tend to drive fans toward companies like his, with licensed authentic merchandise -- products fans just can't seem to get enough of. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Miami.
