Wasilla Sports Authority location heads toward liquidation

WASILLA — The Wasilla Sports Authority store will be closed by the fall — if not earlier — as part of a bankruptcy liquidation process the struggling national retailer entered into this week for its remaining 300 outlets.

Once the nation's largest sporting goods retailer, Colorado-based Sports Authority filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early March with a plan to close some 140 under-performing stores and reorganize its remaining business with the 300 outlets that remained.

The winning bid for the company’s assets were liquidators that plan to sell the company’s merchandise in going out of business sales.

At the time of the bankruptcy filing, the store had some 14,500 employees.

In Alaska, the retailer owns one store each in Wasilla and Fairbanks and two in Anchorage. Those were spared in the first round of March closures.

The stores will be taken over by the liquidation group next week, said Wasilla sales manager Ryder Conroy.

“We were hoping the stores would be purchased and that the Sports Authority name would stay,” Conroy said. “But that’s not going to happen. I am expecting the liquidation process to run through August or September.”

Conroy said the Wasilla location was a profitable store.

“We’ve done well — it has been profitable. Ours and the Dimond store (in Anchorage) were some of the better performing stores in the company,” Conroy said.

The store’s 25 employees were informed of the liquidation at a staff meeting Thursday night, Conroy said.

“It’s tough,” he said. “We’ve told employees that if they can find another job before the liquidation process is up they should go for it because things are going be uncertain.”

Conroy added that he didn’t expect the building to be empty for long.

“There will be a sporting goods retailer in this space,” Conroy said. “With the liquidation process, whoever comes in can take their time now and basically take over an empty store.”

The Wasilla Sports Authority store debuted in 2009, shortly after Target’s fall of 2008 grand opening in the redeveloped space that was once the Cottonwood Creek Mall.

Conroy said the community support for the store and its employees has been gratifying.

“People have been concerned and interested in what’s going on,” Conroy said. “I’d say, wait until next week and we will know more about the liquidation.”

On Friday morning, a handful of customers milled around the store. Palmer resident Mike Thomson was looking for a deal on a kayak. He didn’t get the deal he was looking for, but said he’d return next week after learning of the liquidation process.

“I try to find the deals where I can,” Thomson said. “I bought a $200 pellet gun here for $50 on clearance recently.”

While he said he had never seen that much traffic in the store, Thomson said he did find the employees helpful.

“They once helped me out with a bike repair — they were great,” Thomson said, adding that the Sports Authority closure has raised his concerns about Sears, which announced a round of store closures this spring. Wasilla’s location wasn’t on the list.

“It would break my heart if Sears closed,” Thomson said. “I am a mechanic and have some $50,000 in tools. Most of those are warrantied Craftsman (tools) from Sears.”

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com