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Darren Rovell brings you his unique take on the business of sports: a multi-billion dollar global industry and obsession full of personalities and products. On Sports Biz, Darren will give you his up-to-date take on everything from salaries to endorsement deals to marketing and promotions, trades and tirades – in short, everything that makes sports so exciting.

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Dec.18

2:51 PM ET

Thursday, 18 Dec 2008

Sports Merchandise: Prices Getting Lower And Lower

Posted By:Darren Rovell

Sectors:Retail | Food and Beverage | Media | Personal and Household Goods

Companies:Nike Inc | Under Armour Inc

Sports league apparel and merchandise sales are definitely going to take a hit with the economic downturn. I’m just speaking anecdotally here, but I’ve never seen anything like what’s going on out there.

At a Modell’s I visited this morning, they had a special that advertised NFL replica jerseys– regularly $79.99– at $29.99 and $39.99. It was on select jerseys, but the special was supposed to be on Fridays and Saturdays. It, of course, was a Thursday. And I should say that most of the jerseys featured current players on current teams.

One of those jerseys was Plaxico Burress, who might never play in a Giants jersey again, but the rest seemed to be normal jerseys of popular players.

And I just took a look at Finish Line. Perfectly fine Braylon Edwards Browns jerseys and Tony Gonzalez Chief jerseys selling for $39.99. And that’s not an exception. One retailer told us more and more jerseys are being discounted to the 50 percent mark.

We’ve seen discounts before, but never like this. Maybe if you don't have a jersey, now is the time to buy. Just make sure your favorite player has a couple years left on his contract.