NFL: Titans lead Nashville's hot sports market

Being No. 1 in the National Football League is not just about being a Super Bowl winner. Just look at the Tennessee Titans, a team that came up narrowly short in losing Super Bowl XXXIV to the St. Louis Rams following the 1999 regular season. That exposure, though, catapulted the Titans from being an also-ran in team merchandising sales to a near knockout winner in an amazingly short time-span.

Prior to mid-July of 2000, the Titans were ranked No. 27 among the NFL’s 31 teams in licensed sales of team merchandise. Once NFL Properties, a league arm that oversees and tracks all sales -- estimated at $300 million annually -- caught up with the momentum it announced a startling find: The Titans had jumped all the way from No. 27 to No. 4 in trailing only the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, and St. Louis Rams – the largest jump in team merchandising sales in NFL history.

Four months later, the Titans trailed just the Cowboys, buoyed in large part by 6-foot-4, 240-pound running back Eddie George (the top-selling jersey) and rookie sensation Jevon Kearse, a daredevil, throttle-out defensive end. In Nashville, fans finally had to settle for not who was necessarily their favorite when it came to caps, t-shirts, jerseys and the like but what was available from empty or near-empty stores swamped with demand.

Realistically, though, it is not likely that the Cowboys are going to be dethroned anytime soon by another team selling more gear.

Nashville’s new reputation as a big-time sports city has opened and widened the doors to other niche markets as well. With the Titans, the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators and the Nashville Kats of the Arena Football League, sports hobby shops that deal in trading cards and related memorbilia and collectibles are witnessing a boom in business activity and an overall interest in sports-related items in general.

"We get about 50 new people a week during season," said Bryan Kortness, manager of Collector’s Corner. "They make it clear that they’ve never been a real sports collector but they want to start."

In late spring of 1999, following the conclusion of the Predators’ initial season, the Preds’ promotion staff teamed with area Wendy’s locations and distributed 18,500 sets produced by Pacific Trading Card Co. It required four different sheets for collectors to complete the set, from an overall total of 74,000 sheets. Sheets sold for $1 apiece with a special meal purchase. The 25-card set drew raves for its design and excellent color reproduction.

"With the Predators, the younger kids are good sellers," Kortness said. "When the Predators bring up a new kid we get customers right away looking for their card. David Legwand and Mike Dunham remain popular."

The Predators have remained a hot item in Nashville’s card-selling industry during and since their inagural season. However, when the Titans opened in new Adelphia Coliseum in late summer of 1999, with a new name, logo, uniforms, and concluded the season with a Super Bowl trip, it was newcomer Kearse who rang up league honors and turned the national trading card scene on its ears. Nearly all of the cards from Kearse’s rookie year, produced by America’s top card manufacturers and distributors, were most in demand by the nation’s estimated two million rabid sports card collectors who drive this $500 million-plus annual industry.

"Any Eddie George or Jevon Kearse item is in demand," Kortness said. "People look for rookies, game-used football cards, autographed items. Team sets sell well."

The fourth-year Nashville Kats are barely into a new season. They made it all the way to ArenaBowl XIV last year in a loss to the Orlando Predators. Few AFL teams get involved in the trading card market and the Kats have not yet made that move, but… the Arena Football League is getting ready to do just that. The AFL announced last month that it had entered into a three-year licensing partnership with Pacific to produce trading cards and other collectibles. Pacific plans to issue 75 cards later this year. Six Kats players are on the list: James Baron, Cory Fleming, Aaron Hamilton, Darryl Hammond, Tyrone Jones, and Andy Kelly. The Kats’ 2001 pocket schedule also features Baron. One side of the sked pictures the 6-foot-3, 240-pound lineman and former Virginia Tech standout, one of the league’s more formidable forces. And, yes, there are sked collectors.

Standard trading cards measure 2 ½" x 3 ½" and are a big deal even at that size. Kids and adults have kept their popularity alive for a long, long time. They like them, it appears to be that simple. And it’s not a passion necessarily devoted to the market value of the cards. Collectors prize them for home and office display, and for personal enjoyment, with the emphasis in Nashville becoming decidedly more Nashvillian in theme.