The Sports Professor Rick Horrow, in conjunction with promotional partner Northern Trust, reviews the top 10 list of retail sports holiday gifts – and the business surrounding it – in time for “Black Friday” this Thanksgiving.
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It was a huge holiday hit, sold through the nation’s biggest-box retailer, with lines of anxious would-be buyers snaking around the building.
Fewer than 100,000 units were produced initially. But once the manufacturer realized their gross miscalculation of the demand for the product, less than two months later, over 500,000 units a week were being sold, reaching previously unknown levels.
PS3? Wii?
Mattel Classic Football – or just plain old Mattel Football, as it was known when the hand-held gaming device debuted at Sears in 1977. While the “players” were just beeping blips of light on a monochromatic field, and the gamer had only three offensive options, Mattel Football set the frenzied standard for the now ubiquitous holiday “get.”
As long as there have been holiday throngs, sports-themed items have been near the top of consumers’ shopping lists. Before Mattel Football, there was Atari PONG, which Sears and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell unveiled in 1975 – and sold some 150,000 units between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
EA Sports’ Madden Football, which debuted in 1989, was the best-selling video game of any genre in the U.S. last year. (The NFL struck an exclusive deal for all teams with EA in 2005 as well.) Sports accounts for about a quarter of total U.S. video game software sales – the worldwide market for gaming software was $15 billion in 2005.
Outside of electronic games and gadgets, other sports-related items – jerseys, tickets, and memorabilia among them – have held a constant spot on holiday wish lists. The market for sports apparel is over $35 billion annually. And the average consumer plans to spend nearly $900 during the holidays, including gifts, according to the National Retail Foundation.
Retail is a hugely important component of the $553 billion sports, entertainment, and media business – and never more so than at this time of year. Accordingly, we present the third annual Horrow Sports Hot 10 list of holiday sports gift gets.
1. You, Wii, and PS3: Gaming Consoles and Sports Games
According to the Consumer Electronics Association, electronic goods will account for a quarter of all holiday gifts, with consumers spending $195 on average and revenues reaching $21 billion this holiday season (compared to $17 billion in 2005).
Demand for the Sony PlayStation 3 far exceeded supply when the $499-$599 console shipped last week. The company and its retailers sold out of the initial 400,000 units in minutes, causing near riots in some stores. An additional 100,000 units will ship weekly through year end – marked up PS3s are selling on eBay for more than $2,000.
Nintendo is making roughly four million Wii systems available between the November 19 launch and the end of 2006. For the first time in history, a video game system is on the Toys "R" Us "Fabulous 15," the industry’s most watched "Hot Toy" list. Toy Wishes magazine also includes Wii on its "Hot Dozen" list, another industry bellwether.
