SPORTING GOODS MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION: END OF AN ERA?

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WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE SPORTING GOODS MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION (SGMA) AND NATIONAL SPORTING GOODS ASSOCIATION (NSGA) IN A WORLD WITHOUT TRADE SHOWS?

They served entirely different constituencies — the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association a haven for manufacturers, the National Sporting Goods Association a mecca for sporting goods retailers — but this separation did not pre-empt a bitter rivalry between SGMA and NSGA.

The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) was founded in 1906 by a handful of sporting goods manufacturers in New York City. Its longtime nemesis, the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) is somewhat younger; it was ushered into the world in 1929 by a group of Chicago retailers.

For nearly 100 years, the SGMA was an industry icon, lifeblood of the sporting goods business, and each year — until beset by financial difficulties in the late 1990's — this venerable trade association dispensed millions of dollars to the needy and not-so-needy. Over a 20-year period, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association makes the proud claim of having contributed over $50 million to a multitude of sports-related causes, charities, projects and to other sporting goods associations and non-profit entities. Along with IHRSA, SGMA has been for many years the main sponsor of American Sports Data, Inc. Superstudy® of Sports Participation.

Less burdened by philanthropic instinct, the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) was not so forthcoming. In all likelihood, NSGA, resting on substantial cash reserves accumulated from both its now defunct trade show largesse and the sale of an office building, faces the post-apocalyptic world with more assets than SGMA. In addition to a reliable — if momentarily dampened — flow of interest income, the National Sporting Goods Association can also depend on continuing (if shrinking) membership subscriptions, as well as on a surplus from its annual retail seminar program.

The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association has fewer options. It too has a financial cushion, albeit a smaller one; but should the SuperShow disappear, the loss will obliterate the SGMA's trade show revenue, presumably drying up its membership fee income as well — unless new incentives are devised. This leaves the SGMA a number of options: the repositioning of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association as a foreign trade fair, an educational conference, a research institution, a lobbying group, or most likely — some hybrid thereof. And there is the extremely remote prospect of SGMA acquiring NSGA or vice-versa, not to mention the possibility of a SGMA/NSGA fusion into a supranational group…

To a large degree, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) is a victim of two adages: "good deeds (especially $50 million worth!) never go unpunished," and lest we forget, "nice guys finish last." But it's not over…and if necessity is truly the mother of invention, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association will find new ways to serve its constituency.