Utah's ever-volatile sporting goods retailing market gets a new player next month when Houston-based Oshman's Sporting Goods Inc. opens a new SuperSports USA store in Ogden's Newgate Mall.
Grand opening of the 64,000-square-foot store, the first of its kind in Utah and the Mountain West, is set for Saturday, July 13.But the Ogden store is just for openers in Utah, said Steve Rath, vice president of real estate and development for Oshman's.
Rath said Oshman's is planning "multiple locations" in the Salt Lake and Orem/Provo areas that it expects to open during 1997-98.
He said the Ogden facility was opened first because space was immediately available in Newgate Mall, whereas the stores planned for Salt Lake and Provo will require new construction. He said no deals have yet been signed in those cities but that the expansion plans are definite.
Spokeswoman Kelley Burch said SuperSports USA's claim to fame is its specially designed areas where customers can try out merchandise before they buy it.
Those "Sports-Play" areas are a trademark of Oshman's, said Burch. The Ogden Oshman's will have six of them, including:
- Power Alley, a baseball batting cage with an automatic pitching machine which is said to simulate real game situations.
- A basketball court with youth and adult-size goals.
- A golf simulator, featuring an 18-hole computerized video golf course where customers can test drivers and irons against simulations of some of the world's top courses.
- In-line skating test area.
- A contoured practice putting green.
- The Court, a specially designed area to try out tennis and racquetball equipment.
In determining the merchandise to be carried at the store, Burch said Oshman's reviewed specialty pro shops as well as competing large format stores.
Burch said the Ogden store will create some 100 new jobs.
Founded in 1919, Oshman's now has 125 stores nationwide, including 25 of the "megastore" SuperSports USA stores.
The SuperSports stores are 5-10 percent larger than a typical Oshman's store and carry 20 percent to 40 percent more merchandise, representing 75-100 sports.