America’s Cup Souvenir Sales Full, Brisk

Dennis Conner may be out of the America’s Cup competition, but he has staying power.

For that matter, so do the Kiwis.

Those syndicates remain strong where it counts--at the souvenir stand. Their syndicate stores are still ordering products and selling most of it at full price.

Now that the sun has come out you can get a deal on sweat shirts and fleeces in the America’s Cup International Village. But don’t count on any big bargains.

The hottest items are those of the syndicates still alive, America 3 and Il Moro di Venezia of Italy.

Their gift tents in the international village did overflow business when the Cup finals started and were still doing well Wednesday, a lay day.

Some of the eliminated syndicates remain popular.

Conner’s Stars & Stripes gift stores--he owns the one in the village and gets a percentage of the one at his compound--not only continue to do strong business, but employees at both sites Wednesday said people now view Conner sympathetically and make personal inquiries.

The manager of the Stars & Stripes store in the village, Mark McMahon, said the store did its best volume ever last weekend and continues to run out of merchandise nearly as fast as it can be stocked.

“If he’d been in (the finals) we’d be doing better, but we had a record weekend,” he said. “Recently America 3 probably did a little more business but it’s been strong for both American syndicates.”

An assistant said, “We just got a shipment--we’re running out of sizes. We’ve been swamped. Since (Conner) got eliminated we got busier. The day he was eliminated and the next day we had a lot of people coming in saying they supported him. People ask if he’s gonna stop by and sign things. I think they see that stuff as collector’s items.”

At the Stars & Stripes gift shop and gallery at Conner’s compound, an employee said nothing had yet been placed on sale “and there are no plans. There’s no need. Business has been surprisingly good.”

She added that people ask about Conner: “They want to know what are his plans, when he’s gonna come back. They’re sorry he’s not in it.”

Things were similar at the shopping village set up at the New Zealand compound at Coronado. Even though the Kiwi crew has left town, the stores continue to order stock and sell at full price.

“There are still quite a lot of Kiwis around who bought tickets for the finals. At this stage we’re doing quite nicely without anything going on sale,” a store saleswoman said.

The Kiwi store in the international village reported similar success. “Business has been very good, especially this week. Race days have been jammed,” said a saleswoman who was unpacking a box of shirts.

One of the merchandising curiosities is that the unfortunate circumstances of some syndicates have made them favorites among sympathetic souvenir collectors, especially the ill-fated Soviet syndicate, Red Star, which managed to get a boat here but never launched it and ran out of money.

Red Star clothing has been marked down in some parts of town, but is selling for full price in other places. In the New Zealand store, “Red Star is really popular,” an employee said. “A lot of people say it’s a collector’s piece.”

In the international village, sales haven’t been as brisk for the syndicates that fell out early--Australia, France, Nippon and Espana. But they’re all still open for business. Sweden was the only syndicate to pack up.

An employee at the Nippon tent said they’re still ordering clothing and business “has been tapering off slowly but it’s not a big drop. People think it’s a novelty.”

America’s Cup merchandise may hit bargain basement status--one store in Seaport Village is already selling clothing from the eliminated boats at 50% off--but salespeople said they expect business to remain strong through the summer now that interest in the finals has finally arrived.

Others were more wary of a sharp drop as soon as the competition ends, which could be as early as this weekend. An Australian salesman said that tourist business never did reach the heights expected, even with this week’s rush.

“It has picked up since the finals started,” he said. “but the most common comment we get is, ‘This is not Fremantle.’ ”