Rick Preston estimates he has spent more than $4,000 on Ravens gear since 1996, but there he was yesterday morning, pawing through the racks of jerseys, jackets and T-shirts at Modell's Sporting Goods in the Arundel Mills mall.
"I don't have division championship stuff," said Preston, 47, who lives in New Market in Frederick County and also said he wears only Ravens apparel from the time training camp opens until the season ends.
Preston, a Verizon technician who was wearing a black Ravens cap and a black Ravens fleece over a black Ravens shirt, could be excused for not yet having the latest look. The "2003 AFC North Division Champions" T-shirts ($19.99), sweat shirts ($39.99) and caps ($19.99) arrived at retailers Monday and Tuesday.
And with a home playoff game Saturday against the Tennessee Titans, Ravens merchandise is in demand across the region - and the country.
On NFLShop.com, November sales of Ravens gear were up 86 percent over October, according to spokesman Dan Masonson. And jersey sales of Jamal Lewis, who was chasing the NFL's single-season rushing record all year, were up 94 percent in the same period, he said.
The league estimates three-quarters of the sales on the Web site are to "displaced" fans, those not in the team's market.
From April 1 to Nov. 30, Ravens sales were up 25 percent compared with the similar period of 2002, Masonson said. The average increase for the entire league for that time was 18 percent, he said, and the biggest increase among playoff teams was the 104 percent spike posted by the Kansas City Chiefs.
All 32 NFL teams share equally in the profits made from all merchandise sales.
The league does not release dollar figures, but License! magazine reported in April that the NFL took in $3.1 billion in licensing revenue.
Masonson wouldn't say exactly where the Ravens rank in sales, disclosing only that they are in the middle third of league teams.
At Modell's, store general manager Jeff Nichols said sales of Ravens gear have "picked up a little," during the team's playoff push, but they have been consistently good all season.
Ravens merchandise - including baby outfits, little cheerleader uniforms and the like - is displayed on 11 racks set up in prime retail real estate - directly at the mall entrance to the 31,000-square-foot store, the biggest of the chain's 110 locations. There are actually six fewer racks than the store used to have, Nichols said.
