Montreal Gazette, September 26th 1994

 NEW YORK - Sales of National Hockey League merchandise surpassed $1 billion for the first time last season thanks in large part to the league's two new franchises, the Florida Panthers and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and a growing fascination with the sport in general.

The Disney-backed Mighty Ducks not only led the NHL in the sales department, but they outranked every other team in professional sports - a hockey first. The Panthers ranked second in the NHL, behind Anaheim.

Ducks outsell Bulls

"While the industry is fairly saturated, we as a sport are not saturated, and retailers are looking to us for fresh, new merchandise," NHL spokesman Bernadette Mansur said.

In 1990, sales of NHL-licensed merchandise - everything from key rings to hockey pucks - totalled $150 million.

The figure increased to $275 million in 1991, $600 million in '92 and $800 million in '93.

"We have nowhere to go but up," Mansur said. "You've got to put that billion in proportion with how the other leagues are doing."

The $1 billion by the NHL trailed the $3.8 billion rung up by major-league baseball and the $2.5 billion by the National Football League (National Basketball Association figures are not available). All told, it's a $12-billion-a-year industry.

Still, the fact that the Mighty Ducks outsold the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Raiders - perennial merchandise powers - signalled growing interest in the sport.

Mansur predicts even greater growth in the future.

"We've benefited from the explosion in street and roller hockey," she said.

"Right now we're starting to market a new line of sportswear targeted to those areas. Ice isn't the limit anymore."

Hockey also is finding its way into virgin territories such as Dallas, the nation's No. 1 market for the sale of street sticks, and South Florida, where Panthers memorabilia and merchandise is among the most sought-after in the country.

"When I went home to Rhode Island for the summer, I saw a kid wearing a Panthers sweater," said Greg Bouris, the Panthers' public- relations director. "When I was in New York, I saw a guy on the subway wearing a Panthers cap."

Dean Jordan, vice-president of marketing and merchandise for the Panthers, predicts continued interest, though he doesn't know if the Panthers can vault past the Mighty Ducks.

"I don't know what the distance between one and two was," Jordan said. "But I know going into the season we didn't really have any expectations given the fact there wasn't any of our merchandise on the market until a couple of months before the season started."

The Panthers topped even the champion New York Rangers in sales.

"We were certainly thrilled that the local and national market took to our product," Jordan said.

Develop new products

Jordan said the Panthers will stay in step with other teams in the league, if not lead the way.

"The league is continually developing new products, and we're working with licensees to come up with some innovative items for people to collect," he said.

"One of the things that might be very hot for us this year as the league develops more and more street-hockey merchandise are street- hockey shirts. They'll be made of a lighter material and feature a more modern, youthful type of design."

As with any new franchise, sales of first-year items "went through the roof" last year, Jordan said.

The hottest first-year items, he said, were the lithographs of the opening-night ticket, the team's lapel-pin series and the opening- night ticket surrounded in a Lucite "chunk of ice."