Lakers fans aren't letting the recession rein in their parade.
Los Angeles sports retailers are reporting record sales as adoring fans snap up championship T-shirts, hats and flags. The outpouring of pride is more than welcome for business owners, who have been fighting a down economy for months.
"Winning a championship seems to be curing a lot of people's blues," said Sean Ryan, vice president of merchandise for Anschutz Entertainment Group, owner and operator of Staples Center.
In the 24 hours after the Lakers' Sunday night victory, AEG's three Team LA stores pulled in 14 times what they did when the team last won a championship in 2002. In addition, the company's website had its best sales day ever, eclipsing the previous high by 650%. Ryan declined to discuss exact sales numbers.
There wasn't a trace of financial distress on customer faces at the Team LA Staples Center location. Fans lined the aisles, perusing pins, balls, towels -- anything with a championship logo.
Megan King, 23, and Steven Tillman, 20, of Cerritos emerged with a bag of Lakers gear, including a Pau Gasol jersey, an official championship shirt and several flags. Then it hit them: It wasn't enough. So, they headed back in for a few more championship flags.
The total tab hovered around $150.
"The price on the bill doesn't matter to us," King said. "We've waited so long that we're willing to pay for it."
Some customers just happened upon the store.
Christian Campos, 30, left his San Diego home at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in hopes of securing a spot at Staples Center before the parade began. The problem was that the parade wasn't scheduled to start until today. Campos decided to stick around and pick up a hat and a championship basketball, totaling about $30.
Team LA isn't the only store to reap the benefits.
Sport Chalet Inc., based in La Canada Flintridge, became the Lakers' official sports retailer before the basketball season began. It paid off.
The company experienced "its single biggest sales day by far," said Craig Levra, its chairman and chief executive.
Just two minutes after the Lakers' win, Sport Chalet put official championship products on its website. Demand was so strong that website orders backed up. The company had to manually override the system to ensure that everybody received their items on time. Sport Chalet also had to tack on extra hours to employee work schedules.
