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The University of Michigan athletic department is looking for a new official retailer that would continue to operate under the name of the department’s longtime official retailer, The M Den, which has been targeted for unpaid bills.
In a recent email to UM licensees obtained by the Free Press, an athletic department representative said the university is in discussions with Legends Global Merchandise about its new “official team store” and that “it is our intention for Legends to operate under the store name The M Den.”
“We fully expect to reach an agreement shortly,” the email said. “However, we all need to continue placing orders to get the products here as quickly as possible.”
The email was signed by Kristen Ablauf, an assistant athletic director, and was sent earlier this month, according to a Free Press source.
“We recognize that football starts in a month and students will be back on campus in just a few weeks,” Ablauf wrote. “The schedule is incredibly tight, but we hope we can all work together to get the products here on time and continue to provide our fans with a strong assortment and an excellent shopping experience.”
Ablauf did not respond to a request for comment.
The emergence of a potential new dealer follows recent revelations about growing piles of unpaid supplier and landlord bills for The M Den. Among the largest known claims is that of a Kansas sportswear manufacturer that claims M Den and its co-owner and president, Scott Hirth of Carleton, owe more than $4 million.
A representative for M Den referred all comment Wednesday to Hirth, who did not immediately respond to a message.
A Legends spokesman declined to comment, and there was no immediate response from UM athletic department representatives.
Some M Den vendors were surprised by the retailer’s apparent cash flow problems, considering how much UM merchandise they say was sold during and after the university’s football team’s 2023 national championship season.
Legends is a multifaceted sports company based in New York City. According to its website Legends.net, it has merchandising, event planning, sponsorship and hospitality divisions.
Legends is said to be majority owned by the private equity firm Sixth Street, with minority owners including the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys.
M Den has been the official store of the UM athletic department since the early 1990s, with the exception of a brief hiatus in 2009 when M Den lost the contract to Dallas-based eSports Partners Inc. M Den got the contract back the following year after complaints from fans about the new company, including issues with order processing.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Legends over its proposed $2.35 billion acquisition of ASM Global, a company that handles bookings and management for venues such as stadiums. The lawsuit accuses Legends of illegal coordination ahead of the merger and proposes a settlement offer of $3.5 million.
A Legends spokesperson said he was pleased with the settlement and hoped to complete the acquisition later this month.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or [email protected]. Follow him on X @jcreindl
