Basketball title helps UNC boost merchandise sales

By

Posted 5:47AM on Friday, June 3, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) North Carolina has apparently reversed a slump in merchandise sales by winning the national men's basketball championship. Since the Tar Heels beat Illinois 75-70 for the title in April, fans have clamored for hats, T-shirts and other items. The money goes into the school's general scholarship fund and its athletics budget. Sales for through March had dropped about 20 percent compared to the same period a year ago before North Carolina won the title. James Parker, a representative for Collegiate Licensing Company in Atlanta, which monitors sales for NCAA schools, said the final numbers won't be available until later this summer. But he added: ``The feedback has been positive. The retailers are absolutely thrilled with the sales.'' Chapel Hill Sportswear manager Holly Dedmond said her staff worked as long as 16 hours a day for several weeks trying to fill orders. The biggest sellers have been the NCAA championship hats and replicas of the Nike locker-room national championship T-shirts the Carolina players wore during the night they won the title. North Carolina has led, or ranked among the leaders, in collegiate athletic apparel and souvenir sales for several years. Derek Lochbaum, director of licensing at UNC, said that net revenue from 2003-04 totaled $3.4 million. Seventy-five percent of that went to the university's general scholarship fund. The remaining 25 percent has been used to support the athletic department's $43 million budget. Norwood Teague, UNC's associate athletics director for marketing and promotions, estimates that athletics also could get an additional $100,000 from sales of a basketball book and a DVD video produced by the athletics department that provides a behind-the-scenes look at the 2004-2005 championship season. Information from: The News Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)