Sports Authority set to open.Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard Sports Authority Sports Authority is the USA's largest full line sporting goods retailer. The company is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. It operates over 400 stores in 45 U.S. states under the Sports Authority name. Total sales for the fiscal year ending January 29 2005 were $2.44 billion. , the nation's largest full-line sporting goods Noun 1. sporting goods - sports equipment sold as a commodity commodity, trade good, good - articles of commerce sports equipment - equipment needed to participate in a particular sport retailer, will officially open its new outlet at Eugene's Valley River Center Valley River Center is a shopping mall located in Eugene, Oregon. As the largest shopping center south of Portland and north of San Francisco, this mall comprises over 130 local and national stores and restaurants. this morning with a uniquely Oregon feel. Nike, the Portland-based footwear and sports apparel maker, will have its waffle-patterned footprints all over the store. "Nike is 20 percent of our business, total," said Sports Authority district manager Glenn Stahlman, who was in Eugene on Friday to prepare for the opening. "Nike has put a lot of money in this store, too." The 51,250-square-foot, two-story Sports Authority store will include 3,800 square feet of dedicated space for Nike products and displays - Nike women's and men's shops, a Nike kids' shop, Nike Duck Shop and Nike shoe shop. Most Sports Authority stores assign an employee to serve exclusively as a "Nike Brands Coordinator," store co-manager John Hamblin said. The Eugene store will have two. But the new store offers much more than all things Nike, Hamblin said. Everything from treadmills and other workout equipment to a full water sports water sports Urophilia, see there department (skis, wakeboards and knee boards), team sports equipment, camping gear and outdoor equipment. "We do a huge selection of different products," Hamblin said. "We go for the middle- to high-end equipment, and a huge selection." Did he mention the second-floor shoe department? "We have over 530 styles of shoes," Hamblin said. They include Nike, Asics, New Balance and several other brands. Apparel lines include The North Face, Columbia Sportswear Columbia Sportswear Company NASDAQ: COLM is a United States company that manufactures and distributes outerwear and sportswear. Founded in 1938 by the late Paul Lamfrom, father of present chairperson Gert Boyle, the company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. and others. A "Tech Shop" will offer services ranging from bike and snow ski tune-ups to refilling carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. cannisters for paintball paintball Sports medicine A sport in which marble-sized gelatin capsules filled with a nontoxic dye are shot at speeds of 300 kph/200 mph Warning: guns. And the team sports department has a wall and a half of baseball and softball bats, priced from $20 to $300. "If you've got a league guy wanting to buy a bat, we've got that," Hamblin said. "If you've got a t-ball kid who wants a bat, we've got that, too." The Sports Authority, based in Englewood, Colo., purchased the Eugene store and 11 other outlets of the 20-store Copeland Sports chain after Copeland filed for bankruptcy last year. About 80 percent of the management staff from the local Copeland operation were hired to work at the new Sports Authority store, along with a handful of hourly employees. In all, about 50 people are expected to work at the store. Stahlman, the district manager, said he wasn't sure how much his chain spent to remodel re·mod·el tr.v. re·mod·eled also re·mod·elled, re·mod·el·ing also re·mod·el·ling, re·mod·els also re·mod·els To make over in structure or style; reconstruct. the former Copeland space - but a typical Sports Authority makeover for a smaller, one-story space ranges from $250,000 to $400,000. "And this is more than a remodel and a spiff spiff Informal tr.v. spiffed, spiff·ing, spiffs To make attractive, stylish, or up-to-date: spiffed up the old storefront. n. ," Valley River Marketing Manager Diana Bray said during a tour through the store. Interior walls were removed to extend sight lines across the store's ground floor, and walls near a middle-of-the-store escalator escalator Moving staircase used as transportation between floors or levels in stores, airports, subways, and other mass pedestrian areas. The name was first applied to a moving stairway shown at the Paris Exposition of 1900. were reconfigured. Bray pointed out that the Sports Authority opening marks a milestone for Valley River. "This is the first time since Montgomery Wards closed (due to bankruptcy) in 2001 that we're fully leased in all our anchor spots," she said. The Sports Authority will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. |
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