First of all thanks to Tim Panaccio for giving us the down low of this article.
Is it hard to believe that the Sabres are right up there at the top of the list for jersey sales in July? Yes & no. You would almost think that with the horid begining to July would stall Sabre jersey sales to a screaming halt. Obviously not. The Sabres are represented with 3 of the top 7 selling jerseys. It is a bit of a suprise if you are not a diehard Sabres fan. We surely support our teams through good times and some bumps in the road. AKA 7/1/07- UFA DAY or Doomsday here in Buffalo.
I however do feel that the 8th place ranking of Ovechkin is a bit suprising though. For one the Caps have new jerseys this year which should almost automatically make his numbers jump. I would have figured him to be in the top 4 for sure.
Fopa also suprises me with his #6 ranking. Lets be serious who really thinks he is playing in Nashville again. Hell for that matter maybe not in the league at all this year. I personally don't see it. Lets be honest why would he go back there? He will go to a serious contending team. They have ripped that Roster to shreds.
Crosby's placing isn't a suprise at all. Sid the Kid is the posterboy for the NHL. And is the leagues best player. This ranking should hold steady for a long time to come.
Briere / Drury isn't that much of a suprise. Both guys got huge deals in huge NHL markets. I have a 2 blank NYR jerseys laying around & one will have 23 placed on it soon. These guys jerseys were good sellers in B-Lo last year as well.
Vanek coming in at #5 suprised me at first. But then i realized that much like Crosby, Breire & Drury his jersey is well worth the investment. 7 years for $165.00 is a great deal no matter how you slice it.
Jagr / Lundqvist doesnt suprise me that much with both players in the largest market in all of sports. Both are world class players and are very popular.
Ryan Miller is the face of the Sabres franchise. I was suprised to see him @ #4 though. I would have thought maybe him & Vanek would be reveresed because of Vanek getting his big contract.
Afinogenov beating out Ovechkin????? I am a Sabres fan & Max is my 2nd Favorite Sabre. But honestly i am shocked that his sweater is out selling the great AO. His sales are like his skating....... Fast paced and out of control.
1 Penguins C Sidney Crosby
2 Sabres/Flyers C Daniel Briere
3 Sabres/Rangers C Chris Drury
4 Sabres G Ryan Miller
5 Sabres LW Thomas Vanek
6 Predators C Peter Forsberg
7 Sabres RW Maxim Afinogenov
8 Capitals LW Alex Ovechkin
9 Rangers RW Jaromir Jagr
10 Rangers G Henrik Lundqvist
Anybody see any names missing from the list that seem odd? For me its Patrick Kane & Evgeni Malkin. Last seasons top rookie & This years most anticipated arrival.
Like I stated in Tim's blog, what surprises me the most about this list is that 3 Sabres are still on the list when you can go to any sports bar or the arena and see every Sabre player represented by at least one person.if the sabres had one big time star that every fan embraced like a Crosby, that player would likely blow Cros' number out of the water
great job sabre I really enjoyed it good read
My man....Awesome. There is no better way to end the night at the bars then to see a pm from you with a new article to read. Absolutely awesome again. Very good points your raised about Max and Vanek. I think people will hold out on the kane jersey till preaseason at the earliest. Lets not forget Chi-town has forgotten about their team. Kane will have to earn his way in Chi-town.
Kane? HAHA you have to be kidding me...that wont break the top 10.
goldenj.....the reason i say Kane is because he is this years Crosby of 05 , Malkin of 06 He is this years new big thing. I also agree to an extent with kilab4061 as well. He does play in Chicago. That might not help his chances.
Is this only a listing for their current jersey or would this count vintage? Vintage Buffalo is a thing of beauty. The new one.... well, at least it's better than some of the jerseys we've had in Vancouver...
Who buys there Jerseys from NHL.com? These numbers don't represent anything other than desperate fans trying to cling to something to make them feel their team is important in some meaningless way. Around here we don't buy off of NHL.com. We go down the street and buy any Jersey we want.
Intresting article, SC. I had no idea the Sabres had 5 players in the top 10. Jesus, that's alot. Kinda surprised Campbell ain't there seeing on how he made the all-star team and all....Anyway, good stuff, SC.... hope to see you're blogs in ''Blogging the NHL'' soon.
Interesting point DVHUNT. I was wondering how on earth no Canadian based players could crack the top ten until I saw your post. I know of 10 places within a 30 minute drive where I could pick up any Sens jersey of my choice. Guessing it isn't the same in the US? I do wonder why people are buying jerseys when their team is about to come out with a new one though.
Dvhunt great points. I agree with you on that. I live in the Buffalo area and can go just about anywhere and buy a jersey. The article i read was based on online sales only which is very misleading. One problem on actually figuring out who's jeresys are being bought is the many avenues people can obtain one. I bought a Vanek for instance at a local sports card retailer. They had everybody on the Sabres jersey ready for sale. Even a few of the guys in the minors.
you all should consider yourselves lucky, I'm a sabres fan but I can't walk down the street to get a jersey. Why? I live in Hershey, pa. NHL.com is pretty well my sole avenue to get a jersey minus road tripping. So perhaps this measures casual fan purchases, out of state purchases, bandwagon fan purchases? But either way fathead needs to get these numbers and give us sabres fans a player
squishface.........how about a Ryan Miller or Thomas Vanek the size of your house????????????
My guess is that most of the jerseys sold in the survey are based on sales for the past year or include sales of new RBK Edge jerseys. Either that or NHL fans are spending a LOT of cash on obsolete crap.
Jsaquella. The sales are for the month of July 2007.