Sports Authority

### Founded

1928; 92 years ago (as Gart Sports)Denver, ColoradoNovember 1987; 33 years ago (as The Sports Authority)Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.

### Headquarters

1050 West Hampden Avenue, Englewood, Colorado, U.S. 80110

### Products

Apparel, sports equipment, footwear, exercise equipment

### Parent

Kmart (1990–2003)Sears Alliance/Gart Sports (2003–2006)Sears Alliance (2006-present)

**Sports Authority, Inc.** (formerly **The Sports Authority**) is a sports retailer in the United States that is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. At its peak, Sports Authority operated more than 460 stores in 45 States and Puerto Rico. The company's website was on the GSI Commerce platform and supported the retail stores as well as other multi-channel programs. A joint venture with ÆON Co., Ltd., operates "Sports Authority" stores in Japan over a licensing agreement.

## History

### Gart Brothers

Gart Brothers, or Gart Bros. began in 1928, when *Denver Post* newspaper carrier Nathan Gart started the company with $50 in fishing rod samples.

In 1971, Gart Bros. Company opened the "Sportscastle" superstore in Denver, Colorado, at the corner of 10th Avenue and Broadway. The 1980s marked a period of substantial growth for the company through a series of acquisitions. These mergers included Hagan's Sports Ltd. (1987) and Stevens Brown of Salt Lake City (1987). In the fall of 1992, Leonard Green & Partners acquired Thrifty and became the company's largest shareholder.

### Sportmart

At the same time that Gart Bros. opened the Sportscastle, the Hochberg family and the Cantor family opened their first Sportmart in Niles, Illinois. The company grew to 60 stores in nine states. Gart Sports and Sportmart merged in 1998. Sportmart briefly operated in Canada in the 1990s before closing down their operations after two years.

### Oshman's

Main article: Oshman's Sporting Goods

Oshman's Sporting Goods was founded in Houston, Texas, in 1919 by Jake Oshman. By 1965, Oshman's had become the largest sporting goods chain in Texas, operating 43 Oshman's SuperSports USA stores and 15 traditional stores; the company merged with Gart Bros. in 2001, changing their name to Gart Sports.

### Sports Authority

The Sports Authority, Inc., was founded in Lakes Mall in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, by a syndicate of venture capital groups and several key founding executives. Jack A. Smith, formerly COO of Herman's World of Sports, CEO; Roy M. Cohen, senior vice president and general merchandise manager; Richard Lynch, senior vice president and CFO and Arnold Sedel, vice president of stores operations, were the founding executives. The venture capital syndicate was led by William Blair Venture Partners and included First Chicago Venture Partners, Bain Capital, Phillips-Smith Venture Partners, Marquette Venture Partners, and Bessemer Securities.

The Sports Authority, Inc. opened its first store in November 1987 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1990, Kmart acquired the company. Five years later, The Sports Authority had expanded to 136 stores in 26 states, and was spun off from parent Kmart.

### Gart Sports merge with Sports Authority

Gart Sports, which also operated Oshman's and Sportmart, completed a "merger of equals" with Sports Authority on August 4, 2003. At the time of its merger with Gart Sports Company, The Sports Authority was the largest full-line sporting goods retailer in the United States, and had 205 stores in 33 states. The combined company took the Sports Authority name. With the merger, each share of Sports Authority was exchanged with 0.37 shares of Gart Sports which gave investors in each about 50% of the new merchant. The new company was based in Englewood, Colorado, which was the home of Gart Sports.

As of May 2006, the remaining stores that were not operating under the Sports Authority name were re-branded to the Sports Authority name.

### 2006 leveraged buyout by Sears Holdings

In January 2006, Sports Authority agreed to be purchased in a leveraged buyout by Sears Holdings, a private equity investment firm, in a transaction valued at $1.4 billion. Shareholders approved the deal in May 2006. Upon completion of the merger, Sports Authority ceased to be a publicly listed stock. There were also no public bonds outstanding, and Sports Authority no longer filed financial statements with the SEC.

### Copeland's Sports

In August 2006, Copeland's Sports, headquartered in San Luis Obispo, California filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and on November 17, 2006, Sports Authority, through a wholly owned subsidiary, assumed the leasehold interests in seven former Copeland's Sports retail store locations.

### S.A. Elite

Sports Authority launched new store brand "S.A. Elite" in mid-2010, based on consumer research and testing. These stores are smaller than typical Sports Authority outlets and carry high-end sports apparel and accessories.

### PGA Tour Superstore

Golf & Tennis Pro Shop, Inc. (d/b/a PGA Pro Superstore) originally opened in 2003 as an independent private company until Sears Holdings bought them out in 2009. PGA Tour Superstore has expanded into 15 states with 35 stores.

## Brands

Sports Authority sold different brands of sporting goods from many different vendors. The company also sold products under its own private labels, including Alpine Design (seasonal clothing and outdoor goods), Sims (seasonal clothing and snowboards), Aspire (women's sportswear), SA Gear (men's sportswear and fitness equipment), Tommy Armour and Ram (Golf), Parkside (outdoor games and trampolines), and Bodyfit by Sports Authority (fitness accessories). Many of these products were made by other manufacturers and branded with the Sports Authority private labels.

## Sports Authority Field at Mile High

Sports Authority owned the corporate naming rights to Sports Authority Field at Mile High, a stadium in Denver, Colorado, which is the home of the Denver Broncos. The Denver Broncos purchased the stadium naming rights in August 2016, and has since removed the Sports Authority name from the stadium. By 20 June 2018, the stadium operated under the name Broncos Stadium at Mile High until Empower Retirement took over in September 2019.