As the Ducks attempt to woo back fans after the NHL lockout, the Honda Center also will try to attract people to spend more at a new team store that's slated to debut midseason.
Called the Anaheim Ducks Team Store Powered by Reebok, the hockey franchise's retail venture with the athletic shoe manufacturer is a $1 million piece of the Grand Terrace project, an ongoing $20 million expansion that began last year.
The new Anaheim Ducks Team Store at the Honda Center will feature a custom jersey station where fans can order a custom jersey before the game starts and pick it up shortly afterward.
Courtesy of the Anaheim Ducks
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Honda Center's Grand Terrace project
Size: 12,000 square feet
Design: Rengel+Co Architects of Tustin
Features: An indoor/outdoor entertainment space with an 80-foot bar on the upper level; an expanded store; a 250-seat full-service restaurant; and a new entrance to the arena on the lower level
Cost: $20 million
Access on game days: The retail shop and restaurant are open to all attendees. But membership and a home game ticket are required for access to the Grand Terrace entertainment space on the upper level. A membership costs $400 per season. All 1,000 initial memberships are sold out during the presale and there are hundreds of names on the waiting list.
Access during events and concerts: Available to ticket holders
Status of naming rights: Anaheim Arena Management LLC, the management company for the Honda Center, is in talks with various entities about a formal name of the Grand Terrace area.
Source: Anaheim Arena Management LLC
When completed, the two-story Grand Terrace will add an indoor and outdoor entertainment space that can be rented for events, a 250-seat full-service restaurant, the new store and a new entrance visible from Katella Avenue and the northbound 57.
With more than three times the space of the current store, the new 6,100-square-foot temple to all things Ducks will carry a much broader and deeper assortment in men's, women's and children's goods and exclusive items. It also will debut some features designed to provide an interactive and immersive shopping experience, said Aaron Teats, vice president and chief marketing officer.
The store is an ambitious effort that may do well when fans keep cash registers busy on home-game nights at the Honda Center, said Mark Francis, professor of sports business at the UCLA Center for Managing Enterprise in Media, Entertainment and Sports.
But the true test of the concept's success is if a team store with a lot of inventory and square footage to manage can generate enough revenue to be profitable in between home games and during the offseason, Francis said. This season, it's unclear whether some Ducks fans, already disgruntled by the recently concluded league lockout, will express their displeasure by cutting back on their spending on team merchandise, he said.
A fresh start
On Tuesday, four days before the Anaheim Ducks' first home game of the season, Adam and Rebecca Woods headed to Honda Center with 4-month-old son Dylan to get the family outfitted. After perusing the racks in the 1,800-square-foot team store, the Lake Elsinore couple decided on a cap for Adam, a T-shirt for Rebecca and three bibs for Dylan, totaling $91.
The men's clothing and accessories selection was decent and the array of women's merchandise, OK, Adam said.
"We were kind of disappointed with the baby sizes in the onesies," Rebecca said, adding that the store didn't have one that fit Dylan.
The need for a deeper inventory across all categories ? babies, kids, women's and men's ? is among many things the new store will address, Teats said.
Building a team store from scratch gave Ducks management an opportunity to consider new possibilities.
"One of the main differences between the current store and the new one is that we have enough space now to think about the shopping experience," Teats said. "In 1,800 square feet, we put as much product on the floor that people can see and get. With the bigger size, we can ask questions like what do we want the layout of the store to be and what sorts of things provide the retail experience that all of our fans are going to love."
In addition to stocking logo-laden merchandise, the store needed features that were "eye-catching and intriguing to look at that aren't for sale," he said. A life-size model of a player dressed in full gear will be set up in one area. Nearby, "a replica of the players' lockers will be stocked with game-use merchandise to create a pseudo-locker environment," he said.
A section of the store will pay tribute to the Stanley Cup-winning 2007 team in a nod to Ducks' history.
Some official team merchandise is readily available through the NHL website, so the Ducks needed to give the fans reasons to buy items at the team store. The additions include a custom jersey station in the middle of the store and exclusive lifestyle clothing not sold online, Teats said.
Shoppers can put in customized jersey orders before a home game starts and pick up finished jerseys a short time later. "It's immediate gratification for fans who are thinking, 'I want to wear this during the game,'" Teats said.
The Ducks management also has developed Top Line Threads, a small but upscale private label collection that includes long-sleeved T-shirts.
Because Reebok is a partner in this venture, Ducks-branded Reebok goods will be featured prominently during the regular season and playoffs, Teats said.
A small section of the store will be devoted to jerseys from other NHL hockey teams, and the shop is designed to readily accommodate merchandise for a possible local NBA team. Henry and Susan Samueli, owners of the Ducks, have been actively looking for several years to bring in an NBA franchise to the Honda Center.
The Ducks retail team batted around many ideas in conceptualizing the store, but some ? such as a radio studio and a video-centric man cave ? didn't make the final cut because they were not considered the best use of valuable retail space, Teats said.
The retail pulse
Providing jersey customization, giving fans a wide array of products and making the shopping experience more interactive are key trends in National Hockey League team stores, said Jim Haskins, NHL group vice president of consumer products licensing. "So much of this is about fan engagement ? connecting with the fans," he said.
Broadening the assortment to include higher quality, streetwear and accessories makes business sense for the Ducks, Haskins said. "The Ducks have always had more upscale fans. They do demand better products, such as use of better cotton, better-fitting garments and use of trendy fabrics in the women's clothing side of the business."
The alliance with Reebok is logical, Haskins said, given the brand's longstanding ties to the NHL. Since 2007, the NHL has had its own store in New York, which, like the Ducks store, is "powered by Reebok." That shop serves as a veritable lab and de facto barometer to help the league gauge which products, teams and players resonate with fans.
Will they come?
While the efforts to reinvent a team store and cater to fans is laudable, making a large shop a revenue-generating year-round destination for Ducks fans might be a "tough sell," in Orange County, Francis said. It's a common challenge facing team stores in California and other regions outside of the true winter states of the U.S. and Canada.
From a team store perspective, "it's hard to make a big impact in a relatively smaller market," Francis said. "Hockey is not indigenous" to Southern California.
The overhead to keep a team store open throughout the year is considerable, Francis said.
It's unclear whether there's enough fan support in between home games and during the offseason to sustain a larger retail operation, he said.
That's why great merchandise alone won't be enough, he said. "The store should be made as interactive as possible," he said.
"A hall of fame, for example is one of the very popular features that other team stores are integrating throughout their retail spaces, giving people a reason to drop by."
Teats is optimistic that the new Ducks team store has the elements of a successful retail concept ? one that he hopes fans will repeatedly visit.
"Whether you buy anything or not, we just want you to love what you see," Teats said. "We certainly want you to buy, but we want you to enjoy the experience."
Contact the writer: 714-796-7969 or lliddane@ocregister.com
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/news/store-408969-team-ducks.html
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