The UCLA football team’s Pacific-10 opener Saturday
against the Oregon St. Beavers may indicate whether the Bruins will
push for a conference championship and a major bowl bid, or
flounder through another less-than-satisfying season.
And when the 3-1 Bruins take the field, the Associated Students
of UCLA may be cheering them on for more reasons than just Bruin
pride ““ ASUCLA BearWear sales typically increase when
UCLA’s sports teams fare well.
BearWear items, which consist of anything emblazoned with the
UCLA logo, range from sweatshirts to key chains.
According to ASUCLA executive director Pat Eastman, though
BearWear earns revenue from other sources besides sports, the
teams’ success is still a driving force “to the extent
that emblematic sales are better.”
ASUCLA, with its funds shrunken since reverting back to a low
$7.50 student fee this year, should be looking to grab at any
revenue it can possibly get.
In addition to the student union fee decrease, the Association
will be spending an additional $800,000 a year to pay
newly-unionized food workers, resulting in a projected net income
for 2002-2003 of only one-fifth of what it actually was in
2001-2002.
Vice Chancellor of Budget and Finance Steve Olson, who provides
administrative perspective in shaping ASUCLA financial policy, has
expressed concern about the low revenue projections, not just for
this school year, but for the next five. If sales are negatively
affected, ASUCLA could begin losing money, Olsen said in an earlier
interview.
Though Olson mentioned that BearWear sales are always volatile,
his secretary said Wednesday he could not comment on how the sales
were affected by sports.
Eastman said, “There are fans who come to the game to shop
for things before and after the game … definitely volume is
connected to games.”
Second-year undeclared student Sam Barkin said that he’s
bought a few of the “big hands” to point at games over
the years.
And it’s not just football success that can help
ASUCLA.
After the 1994-1995 basketball National Championship, ASUCLA
generated approximately $1 million in additional BearWear revenue,
said ASUCLA General Merchandise Manager Patrick Healey.
“The better the teams, the more excited fans are, and the
more willing they are to buy sweatshirts and T-shirts,” said
UCLA Store retail director Keith Schoen.
But Schoen noted that the strongest sales time is still between
August and December ““ not because of athletics, but due to
returning students purchasing textbooks, the general sales catalog,
and the annual Halloween sale.
“It’s usually more relevant to the holiday
sales,” Schoen said, adding that the largest month in apparel
sales is in December.
Healey said that the football season has more impact on sales
level because it coincides with the beginning of the year, when
fans particularly buy more football jerseys, sweatshirts, T-shirts
and hats.
Second-year sociology student Jesse Karp said that on top of
purchasing the “big hand things” to bring to games, he
buys ASUCLA apparel for school spirit reasons, not because of the
discount taken at the register when the football team scores a
certain number of touchdowns.
“I definitely buy sweatshirts every time the football team
wins games,” he said.
But other students say that they don’t buy apparel
according to sporting events because they are “monetarily
challenged.”
Instead, they rely on sales.
“They’re fifty-dollar sweatshirts,” said
fourth-year neuroscience student Vishal Jivan. “I buy
according to sales.”
Besides BearWear apparel, which amounted to approximately $7
million out of a total of $51 million in sales last year, Eastman
added that concession sales at the Rose Bowl and Pauley Pavilion
also play a part in the athletic department generating sales for
ASUCLA.
In addition to those sales, concessions also generate revenue
for ASUCLA at the Mercedes Benz tennis tournament, held at the Los
Angeles tennis center each summer.
Head of ASUCLA food services Bob Williams said in a board of
directors meeting in July, which happened as the tournament was
taking place, that food sales were doing well.
As long as Andre Agassi, a popular tennis star who fans were
turning out to see, kept winning, concessions would do OK, Williams
said.
Last year’s concession sales, totaled almost $300,000.
But according to sports marketing director Scott Mitchell,
football is the sport at UCLA that causes students to buy more UCLA
apparel.
“Six times as many people come to games (as compared to
basketball). There are six times as many seats,” Mitchell
said, adding that at the last game, they sold 7,500 Bruin
terry-cloth towels, the most popular item.
Though sports do play a role in determining ASUCLA sales,
Eastman said that ASUCLA budgets at a baseline level ““ they
base their sales on an average year without taking the possibility
of a national championship into consideration.
“If an athlete’s team goes to the championship,
emblematic sales go up, but ASUCLA doesn’t base sales on
it,” Eastman said. “If we get there, it’s an
additional revenue; our financial viability doesn’t depend on
one factor.”