Thursday, February 4th 2010

By sam colbert

The current management of ShortStop, the campus athletic apparel, equipment and nutrition store located in the David Braley Athletic Centre, will be transferred from the MSU to Athletics and Recreation as a result of a new partnership between the McMaster Students Union and Athletics and Rec. The MSU will, however, continue to own the space and receive a portion of the store’s revenue.

Jeff Giles, Director of McMaster Athletics and Recreation, believes that this is a positive first step in bolstering the presence of McMaster athletics on campus. Through an expansion of ShortStop and increased sales of modern, affordable apparel, he hopes to improve student attitude toward campus sports.

“If you think about the University of Michigan and you think of the blue ‘M’…they go hand-in-hand,” said Giles. “That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to create a brand, the McMaster Marauder brand.”

Ideally, this change will benefit both parties involved. Now in its third year, ShortStop has yet to be profitable for the MSU. This is in part because the store must purchase all apparel it sells either from Titles or Athletics and Recreation, due to their respective relationships with suppliers.

As a result, merchandise prices are high, making them difficult to sell in large quantities. With this change operation, the MSU will ideally be guaranteed revenue.

According to Giles, Athletics and Recreation already buys hundreds of thousands of dollars in apparel for student athletes to wear around campus.

Now, it’s just a matter purchasing more of the relatively cheap merchandise to sell at ShortStop. The organization can make ShortStop profitable while increasing support for McMaster athletics.

“What we’re looking at is guaranteeing a revenue source for the MSU while we empower Athletics and Recreation to take on the day-to-day management of the store,” said John McGowan, General Manager of the MSU since 2002.

McGowan speculated on the next steps for the newly-formed partnership. “If I was Athletics and Recreation, I would ask to work with us on re-launching [ShortStop], maybe creating a better identity and tie to the Marauder name. … Ideally, you’ll see more product line, specifically related to the Marauder brand.”

Due to the rapid increase in minimum wage relative to the change in the Consumer Price Index, hiring more ShortStop employees would have been difficult for the MSU.

Athletics and Recreation, on the other hand, will continue to employ full-time undergraduate students, one of the MSU’s conditions in making the transition, and can create more student jobs as the business expands.

The change is currently in discussion phase, and the MSU Executive Board will soon present the idea to the Student Representative Assembly to make the necessary policy changes. ShortStop will be managed under guidelines provided by the MSU.

McMaster Athletics and Recreation will likely take over on Apr. 30, 2010 when Giles is considering closing the store down during the spring to refurbish and prepare for the following school year.

Giles was President of the CFL during the 1990s, and brought that sports marketing experience with him when he started at McMaster in June 2009.

“This whole merchandising and apparel thing is only a small part of our overall branding strategy, what we want to do is to get out and change the way Athletics is marketed and branded.”

Tags: athletics and recreation, McMaster, MSU, Profit, ShortStop, Sports, sports merchandise, student union