For merchants, relief is spelled U-T-E-S

Excited University of Utah football fans, and those who just want to jump on the Ute bandwagon, have pushed bowl-related merchandise sales at the campus bookstore up 10 percent to 15 percent in the days leading up to Friday's big game in the Big Easy.

Utah will play the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, and Ute fever is pushing gear and merchandise sales up significantly, according to school officials.

"From this year to last year, we're way up," said Mike Cherry, marketing director at the campus bookstore. "People come in and buy sweatshirts, T-shirts, hats and whatever they can get their hands on."

Cherry said that sales were up even from the year of the Utes' other Bowl Championship Series appearance in 2005. He estimated that sales this year were about 5 percent more than that year's Fiesta Bowl-related sales.

"Utah fans have been very good to us this year," Cherry said with a chuckle. He said that the bookstore alone is selling about $45,000 worth of Ute apparel and merchandise each day, including what he described as a surprising number of items that would typically be used in summer, during warmer weather — barbecue grills.

"To me, going out and barbecuing in 30-degree weather or colder isn't exactly the most fun thing to do. But people are having their Sugar Bowl party and figure that they have to have some steaks out on the grill," he said. "Those things have sold very, very well."

All of the profits from sales at the bookstore go to reduce the cost of tuition and other education-related expenses for students enrolled at the university, he said.

Demand for Ute merchandise has also increased at vendors outside of the campus, according to Brett Eden, director of campus auxiliary services. He said that the university licenses with nearly 400 manufacturers to distribute Ute gear, including Nike, Champion and Under Armour, maker of the team uniforms.

Eden said that in most years, Utah typically vies for merchandise-sales supremacy in the Mountain West Conference with "the folks down South," using a common jab to refer to Brigham Young University. "But we would expect to surpass them this year because we're doing well, and they aren't doing as well as they'd hoped," he said with a wry laugh.

The increase in merchandise sales likely will have a major impact on the amount of royalties the university will receive following its upcoming BCS appearance. Eden said that the school would get about 10 percent from the sale of every Ute item sold by licensed vendors.

Eden said that royalties are up almost 20 percent from 2005, which could mean millions to the school.

Merchandise sales for games of this magnitude are big business, for legitimate retailers and the not-so-legit. Some unlicensed vendors in New Orleans this week were seen hawking "bootleg" shirts touting the Southeastern Conference Tide vs. the Western Athletic Conference Utes. The problem was, the Utes play in the Mountain West Conference. But the misprinted, unofficial shirts quickly vanished.

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