Local Soccer Shops See Increase in Business

Around the globe, people for the past month were swept up with World Cup fever, and Sachem-area retailers specializing in soccer gear once again benefited from the quadrennial event.

Carlos Alas, owner of the Soccer Station chain with locations in Farmingville, Bay Shore and Rockville Centre, said earlier this month that sales of jerseys, in particular those of the USA team, were the most successful. Items such as cleats didn't fly off the shelves quite as often, but the slight spike put his business's numbers at 10 percent above normal overall, adding that even that bump is prone to fluctuation.

"It varies from Cup to Cup," he said.

Nicholas Peragine, the original owner of Soccer World, whose daughter Margaret currently owns the Holbrook-based business, said the jerseys for Spain's team began to move as they advanced to the finals. As was the case with Soccer Station, cleats and other gear saw only a modest increase - Peragine attributed this to the still-flagging economy.

"There was a lot of excitement, then they started flying," he said of the Spain jerseys, adding that jerseys for USA, Portugal and Italy also sold well. "And the Italian jerseys, win or lose, they always do good."

Following the Cup finals, Peragine, a Lake Grove resident, said he plans to mark down the jerseys he has remaining in stock, as teams will typically receive redesigned jerseys for each Cup.

"I got a lot of Argentina jerseys," he added, laughing.

The overall popularity of soccer is said to be rising, sharply at odds with the conventional wisdom that the sport's status stateside remains a distant trailer to traditional favorites like professional baseball.

Jason Brewer, managing editor of the SportsBlog Nation's Philadelphia site, and Simon Borg of MLSSoccer.com both reported that Sunday's World Cup final was the most watched soccer match in U.S. television history.

Broadcasting on two networks, the final had a total of 24.3 million viewers (15.5 million on ABC and 8.8 million on Univisión), just shy of the 28 million who tuned in for game 7 of the NBA finals in June. Brewer added that this Cup had more viewers in the U.S., "than watched the deciding game of the World Series or Stanley Cup Final."