Sports Authority to close stores in Whitehall, Lower Nazareth – Allentown Morning Call

Lower Macungie resident Bruce Wynocker visited Sports Authority in Whitehall Township on Wednesday, looking to cash in on a gift card his daughter gave him for Christmas.

What he found inside was a sparse offering of discounted items. Toward the back of the store, he found bare shelves and cardboard boxes stacked on pallets.

After buying a marked-down athletic suit, Wynocker figured he would use up the gift card on some golf items. But, he said, “there were no clubs or balls I could find anywhere.”

As Wynocker knew by the time he left the store, the clock is running out on Sports Authority’s presence in the Lehigh Valley.

The retailer plans to close its stores at the Whitehall Square Shopping Center in Whitehall Township and Lower Nazareth Commons off Route 248 in Lower Nazareth Township, according to a document filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that marks 143 stores across 26 states and Puerto Rico slated for closure.

Sports Authority filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, as the struggling chain aims to restructure its operations, better tailor itself to customers and trim some $1.1 billion in debt, according to court documents.

Of the store closings, which are part of the restructuring, 24 will be in Texas, 19 in California and 18 in Florida.

The store closing sales — assuming they are approved by the court — will occur over a period of several weeks, Sports Authority spokesman Steven Goldberg said in an email. So, he said, the stores actually might close at different times depending on how long the sales take. Goldberg also declined to provide employee counts for the Whitehall and Lower Nazareth stores.

At the Whitehall store Thursday afternoon, many of the clothing racks were still full but other sections were skimpy. There was a plethora of yellow clearance signs and items were marked down as much as 30 percent off. The sale runs through May 7 — or, more likely, while supplies last.

“It looks kind of bare, lots of discount prices,” said Allentown resident Rose Allen, who was surprised to hear the store was closing. “We came in because they have good deals on gym equipment and that’s what we came in for.”

Retail analyst Jeff Green, owner of Jeff Green Partners in Phoenix, also was surprised that Sports Authority plans to close both stores, a move that shows it’s abandoning the Lehigh Valley market.

The proximity of the two stores to a Dick’s Sporting Goods location may have played a role in the decision.

The 49,360-square-foot Whitehall store is less than a mile from a Dick’s Sporting Goods, while the 41,983-square-foot Lower Nazareth location is about 5 miles from a Dick’s store.

While the sporting goods industry has remained stable, Green said it has gotten more fragmented in recent years. For example, he said, there are stores like Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s that specialize in camping and fishing, while there’s been an increase in retailers that focus solely on specific sports like skiing, mountain climbing and running.

Meanwhile, Dick’s has been able to expand, growing from, as of Oct. 31, 597 stores to 645 stores in one year.

“It’s a very stable industry with many more competitors going after the same size pie, and the pie’s not getting any bigger,” Green said.

Neil Stern, a senior partner at Chicago retail consulting firm McMillan Doolittle, said demand for sporting goods has been strong. But, he said, much of the growth in the industry is available online — with about 20 percent of sales now online — making it difficult for traditional big-box sporting goods retailers.

Especially a traditional sporting goods retailer like Sports Authority, which has to limit expansion and innovation because of a heavy debt load.

“The debt certainly hampers you,” Stern said. “Where Dick’s has been able to grow and innovate in its formats, Sports Authority has not been able to do as much.

“That’s made it even more difficult for them to compete in a tougher environment.”

Those who recently visited the Sports Authority in Whitehall said employees there referred them to the Montgomeryville store on Bethlehem Pike in Montgomery County for future shopping. But most are unsure where they’ll shop next.

As for Wynocker?

He said a new Dick’s Sporting Goods is being built not far from his home at the Hamilton Crossings development in Lower Macungie.

jon.harris@mcall.com

Twitter @ByJonHarris

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