As the third game of the 2015 NBA finals is about to start in Cleveland, many fans are wondering whether they will see a thrilling game with overtime. This game will determine whether Stephen Curry along with the Golden State Warriors will make a comeback after their loss on Sunday or if the Cleveland Cavaliers will come to victory after their 1-1 tie. However, there is also another battle on the horizon between the two teams. This battle doesn’t have to do with rebounds or points, but more to do with which basketball team’s merchandise is selling more.
Cavaliers Are The Winners
Shopatron who is the provider of the SaaS platform looked at all the major United States sporting goods retailers in order to do a direct comparison between the merchandise sold between the two teams leading to the playoffs, as well as during the overall season and found that the Cavaliers are the victors of this particular battle. That being said, Lebron James merchandise has been flying off the shelves. Since the beginning of the season, which started on October 28th, the Golden State Warriors have been outsold by the Cavaliers by a whopping 24.1 percent.
Why The Cavaliers Are Winning
The reason as to why the Cavaliers are making major moves in the merchandising department is that Lebron James has come back to Cleveland. However, that doesn’t mean that the Warriors aren’t putting up a fight, as they spend an average of 35.3% more on each order than do Cavalier fans during the entire season. This also makes sense, as no one would have thought that the Warriors were going to lead the pack to victory in any prediction category let alone to dominate in the Western Conference. The icing on the cake was Stephen Curry winning the MVP award, which has massively boosted his merchandising sales.
Warrior Momentum
Both Stephen Curry winning MVP and Warriors dominating in the Western Conference by picking up some serious momentum in the May season as the Warriors entered into the playoffs is the reason for this massive upswing in sales. The basketball team was able to sell 92.8% more during the end of May then in the beginning. Compared to this, Cavaliers fans were not as optimistic about their team winning. In fact, Cavaliers ended up selling 28.1% in the beginning of May compared to the second half of the month.
Lebron James: Key Player
The real secret to the Caveliers success is the aforementioned LeBron James who was able to carry the team significantly. His merchandising sales have made up 82% of the total sales for the Cavaliers. Without these whopping figures there is no way that the Golden State would have been able to beat Cleveland by such a landslide. One sign that the majority of fans who purchased the team’s merchandise were not simply jumping on the bandwagon because of their success was that although sales momentum did grow around finals, both basketball teams actually sold a lot more merchandise during the middle and beginning of the entire season and not just in May.
Only Time Will Tell The True Victor
It would seem as though much like the Cavaliers while on the basketball court, if it weren’t for LeBron James’ impressive skills and popularity, the Warriors fans would have won the merchandising show down against Cavaliers fans. Only time will tell who the winning team will be on the court however, and what impact this will have on the retail side. Whatever the case, it’s likely that both of the fan bases will declare victory in the merchandising battle.