Dick’s Sporting Goods focuses on South Florida, California for expansion

Posted on March 8, 2017

Dick’s Sporting Goods has turned most of its focus to South Florida, California and the Pacific Northwest when it comes to opening in former Sports Authority stores, according to public documents.

In the company’s third quarter 2016 earnings call transcript, Dick’s Sporting Goods Chairman and CEO Edward Stack said that, from a real estate standpoint, the company is focused on areas where Sports Authority exited with no direct competitor in the market.

Don't expect to see this sign in Hawaii anytime soon. Dick's Sporting Goods left Hawaii off its list of places where it plans to take over former Sports Authority spaces.

Source: DICK’S SPORTING GOODS

“There’s nobody in Southern California,” he said. “There is nobody really in Florida in any meaningful way, and we think there’s opportunities for us.”

Last year, Dick’s purchased Sports Authority’s intellectual property and the rights to acquire 31 store leases, of which it retained 22 of those leases, primarily located in California and South Florida.

The majority of the Sports Authority stores are expected to re-open as Dick’s during the first quarter of this year.

Andre Hawaux, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Dick’s, said in the transcript that it continues to have a very rigorous real estate approach and policy that’s financially driven.

“That was again accentuated in the fact that we rejected several of those leases — or about nine of those leases that we acquired from The Sports Authority because they did not meet our hurdle rates and they weren’t the right real estate,” he said. “So you can expect us to continue to be very focused on how we look at the metrics on a real estate standpoint as we go forward.”