Colorado Avalanche fans didn’t wait until the morning after to load up on new team gear in celebration of the team’s Stanley Cup win. The Dick’s Sporting Goods stores that were open Sunday night were plenty busy.
“Avs fans have been passionate this entire year and then last night they really showed their true colors,” said Jessica Gillman, the company’s community marketing manager in Colorado.
Several of the Denver-area stores opened after the Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 in Tampa to win the Stanley Cup, the team’s third championship since 1996. The stores stayed open until midnight Sunday and opened at 7 a.m., two hours early, on Monday.
“It was very busy, which is a great thing,” Gillman said. “Everybody was excited. You could just feel that good energy.”
Gillman hadn’t heard if any of the stores sold out of any items. She said Dick’s had run “super low” on Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar jerseys the past week. Makar, the young defenseman, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL playoffs’ most valuable player.
One Colorado family made a multi-generational shopping trip to Denver for merchandise marking the Stanley Cup victory. Maddie Sanders of Littleton was with her mother, aunt and grandmother at Altitude Authentics team store in Ball Arena early Monday afternoon.
“I’ve been a fan for nine, 10 years,” said Sanders, who watched all the playoff games. Sunday night’s matchup topped all the others.
“Oh my god, I count not breathe. I was kneeling,” Sanders said.
To celebrate, Sanders bought Stanley Cup championship and Western Conference Finals T-shirts as well as pucks and key chains. She said she spent about $250 and was headed to Larimer Square next.
“My biggest goal was to get a championship T-shirt,” said Robin Loughran of Castle Pines, Sanders’ aunt. “And it’s just fun to come on a field trip.”
Loughran is a big fan of all the Colorado sports teams. She has cheered for the Avalanche since its first championship in its debut Colorado season. Her grandson now wears the Patrick Roy jersey she bought when Roy, now in the Hockey Hall of Fame, was the team’s star goalie.
Loughran’s shopping advice to fellow fans? “You better get down here. The T-shirts are going fast.”
A Sportsfan sportswear store on Denver’s 16th Street Mall was waiting for a new shipment of Avalanche T-shirts Monday morning.
“Because everyone was expecting them to win Friday night, we sold out of basically everything: all our T-shirts, most of our hats,” said Albert Batres, the store’s assistant manager.
Most of the jerseys also sold out, he added.
The Avalanche lost 3-2 to the Lightning in Game 5 in Denver Friday and went back to Tampa to clinch the championship.
Batres said the Sportsfans stores expected a new shipment of T-shirts on Monday and more items in a couple of days. He said fans showing up Monday morning to buy shirts took it in stride when he explained that new supplies were on the way.
“They say ‘OK.’ They’re just happy. They can’t really be mad” because the Avalanche won, Batres said.
The Denver-area Sportsfan stores had extra people working to handle the crowds.
“Not only because of the Avs, but also because the (Colorado) Rockies have the (Los Angeles) Dodgers in town at the same time. It’s going to get pretty busy,” Batres said.
Dick’s Sporting Goods ordered Avalanche Stanley Cup merchandise beforehand so stores could be ready to go as soon as the finals ended.
“We get a shipment a couple of days before with the logos,” Gillman said. “You just kind of hold your breath and hope your team’s going to win so you can get all of that merchandise out the door.”
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