Kelly/Shorts varsity shop sets records in profits
The new Chippewas Varsity Shop in Kelly/Shorts Stadium is setting sales records this season.
CMU Bookstore Director Barry Waters said the shop, which is run by the Bookstore, has been a tremendous success and has brought in record-setting profits since it opened its doors Sept. 18, the day before the first home football game against Alcorn State. Waters said the shop has made $72,824 in sales since opening, and expects to make about $25,000 in profit this year.
He said gameday clothing sales during Homecoming were the highest they had ever been in the history of the Bookstore.
“I went back five years, and the next in line was the day we played Boston College,” Waters said. “That was the first week of classes, so I still would have had tons of students coming through here to get their books. So that makes the Eastern Michigan Homecoming day this year even more special.”
The Varsity Shop cost $200,000, split by the CMU Bookstore and athletics, Waters said.
The bookstore paid for construction up front, but the athletics department will not begin to receive its portion of profit, 10 percent, until the Bookstore makes enough money to recover half the construction costs.
Waters expects the building to be paid off completely in 10 years.
Athletics profits
Athletics Director Dave Heeke said the percentage of profit the athletics department will receive will go into the department’s general budget, which pays for scholarships and other general fees.
Senior Associate Athletics Director Derek van der Merwe said the department built the shop to benefit fans.
“We are committed to really looking at initiatives that improve the gameday experience of our fans, and this was an important component,” van der Merwe said. “We’re excited to continue to serve the needs of our customers.”
This is not the first time a shop has been opened inside of Kelly/Shorts Stadium. Waters said in 2007, the Bookstore and athletics department tried opening a shop by the stadium gates under a tent, but found selling during gametime difficult because fans were too far away.
Development of the new shop began in January 2009 after the athletics department offered to give the bookstore a new location closer to fans to remedy the problem.
“Athletics came to me and said, ‘How about we just lay a slab somewhere closer to the stadium?’” Waters said. “I said, ‘Why don’t we just build a store on that slab?’”
Construction took four weeks, and the shop was ready for the first game against Alcorn State.
