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Washington Redskins merchandise sales tanking amid nickname controversy
There has been a working theory in NFL circles that perhaps with the likelihood of the Washington Redskins' nickname controversy brewing to the point where the team name could change, perhaps sales of Redskins memorabilia — which soon could be considered retro — would spike.
Feel free to defenestrate that idea.
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According to CNN, sales of Redskins items plunged 35 percent in the most recent quarter despite a 3 percent rise overall in sales of NFL merchandise, from statistics gathered by SportsSourceOne, a service that tracks licensed merchandise sales across the country.
Maybe fans just don't like the style. Maybe they think the team is going to stink, like it did last season. Or maybe they have enough white, gold and burgundy in their closets.
The team believes the on-field product might be the reason.
"Unfortunately, team performance on the field is a major factor in the apparel business, and a 3-13 season doesn't do much to help sales," Redskins senior vice president of communications Tony Wyllie said. "However, we are working hard to improve that record and we look forward to the season opener this weekend."
(An aside: Wyllie's choice of the word "unfortunately" is interesting, yeah? As if loyalty should be blind and unrelated to the direction of the team? Hmm.)
But maybe, just maybe, fans are turning on the Redskins name.
"People are having a second thoughts about wearing a T-shirt with the logo or name that it has now been called racist," SportsSourceOne senior analyst Matt Powell said.
This is up for debate, of course, just as the larger controversy of whether "Redskins" is offensive or whether the team should be forced to change its name. But the combination of a bad on-field product and this brewing story certainly make a lot of sense as to the correlation of the plummeting swag sales.
Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has fiercely defended his team's name as being honorable, traditional, well0-intentioned and harmless. But fans of the team are answering with their own message: Whatever the direction of the team is now, they're not going to support it by buying more gear.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
