Check out what it costs National Football League fans to attend games.

The latest NFL season got under way Thursday night as the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants opened their season with a win (pictured right). For their fans, there were some changes that affected their wallets.

The average ticket price to attend an NFL game rose almost 8 percent to $72.20, according to Team Marketing Report, a Chicago-area sports marketing firm. And if a family of four wants to take in a game played by the Giants, get ready to shell out almost $500 for tickets, beers, hot dogs and other items.

The increases are de rigueur nowadays as the various North American leagues continue to report record attendance and revenues, but cracks may be starting to appear as some fans have begun dialing back spending amid high prices for gasoline and food, and rising unemployment.

As long as the market will bear it, however, fans of the NFL and other professional sports will have to budget for the increases if they want their game-day fix.

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(Photo: Reuters)

Check out retailers’ profits and forecasts.

A discerning shopper, or investor for that matter, could browse the aisles of the retail financial world and come away with very different messages on the strength of the U.S. economy depending on which company’s results they chose.

On the plus side,  upscale jeweler Tiffany posted a better-than-expected profit and raised its full-year outlook, although that was driven by strong sales overseas. Tiffany expects U.S. same-store sales to return to growth in the fourth quarter. Shoe and hat retailer Genesco, and home-appliance and consumer-electronics retailer Conn’s also topped Wall Street’s views and boosted their forecasts.

For the pessimists out there, Williams-Sonoma saw its profit fall and it cut its forecast, while Sears Holdings also fell short of expectations amid the weak housing market.

Somewhere in the middle was discount store operator Fred’s, which reported a profit in line with what analysts were expecting.

Retailers have been hit in varying degrees as consumers dial back discretionary spending due to the pressure from high food and gasoline prices. Even as the U.S. economy grew stronger than first thought in the second quarter, economists see growth slowing as the year progresses.

Also in the basket:

Genesco posts better-than-expected profits; ups views

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Michael Kors (but You Knew That) (New York Times)

(Photo: Reuters)

Joseph Abboud loves big American guys and to prove it, the apparel maker’s parent, JA Apparel Corp, signed a three-year deal to outfit 31 of the 32 National Football League coaches with its suits and other men’s wear.

The one coach who did not sign on? Hooded sweat-shirt wearing Bill Belichik of the New England Patriots.
 
Under the deal with the NFL Coaches Club, which manages marketing deals for the coaches, privately held Joseph Abboud will provide tailored clothing, dress shirts and ties and dress sportswear for off the field use through 2011. 
“The NFL is the most popular sport now and it’s completely American,” JA Apparel Chief Executive Marty Staff said in a telephone interview. “It all works. All of our competitors are European and this is really a point of departure for us. 

“Also, we love guys who are 35 to 54. We’re not a metrosexual company,” he said, adding he expects the multimillion dollar deal to boost sales and the company’s profile. 

The clothing will not be worn on the sidelines on game day. Staff joked he was glad the apparel will be tailor made at the company’s factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts, as few of the big, burly coaches buy off the rack.
 
The deal came about after San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Nolan successfully petitioned the NFL last year to wear suits on the sidelines for home games to honor his late father, who wore a suit when he coached the 49ers and New Orleans Saints in the 1960s and 1970s. 

In a ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ world, Staff hopes Joseph Abboud in the next several months will sign similar deals in other North American sports leagues. 

(Photos: Reuters)

Wal-Mart has conquered the retail, toy and grocery segments of the U.S. market. Now the world’s largest company thinks it can accurately predict the winner of the Super Bowl too.

The retailer said higher sales at its stores of T-shirts of the big game’s participating teams has successfully predicted the outcome in three of the last four years. Sorry, Philadelphia Eagles fans, but your support was not enough to overcome quarterback Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in 2005.

Fans of the Chicago Bears (pictured right buying team merchandise after Chicago won the NFC championship game), who will play the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI in Miami on Feb. 4, can take hope. Wal-Mart said in the early going, Bears’ T-shirts hold a slight edge as of Jan. 26.

Oddsmakers are ignoring such history, however, having established the Colts as the favorite by about a touchdown.

Wal-Mart may be hedging its bets as it also pointed out that Colts fans have bought more DVDs about their team’s history. And the store in Rensselaer, Indiana — the halfway point between Chicago and Indianapolis — is selling merchandise for both teams.

Colts fan still have a chance to change the outcome and ring up more sales for Wal-Mart as the company will provide a pregame update of the T-shirt sales figures on Feb. 2.