Dick's opening in Bloomington

With April weather sparking spring outdoor activities, IU students will have a new option for fulfilling their sporting needs when Dick's Sporting Goods opens today.\nDick's, located in the College Mall, offers 50,000 square feet of sports equipment, apparel and footwear and seeks to outfit IU students and Bloomington residents with all of the sporting equipment they need. \nThousands of IU students compete in recreational sports. This fact, coupled with the active Bloomington community, encouraged Pittsburgh-based Dick's to expand to Bloomington, said Les Morris of Simon Property Group, which manages College Mall.\n"They were very attracted to come to Bloomington because of the demographics and the interest in physical fitness," Morris said.\nAlthough the store will have been open for more than a week, Dick's will hold grand opening festivities April 17 with several entertainment and sporting events planned. \nThe opening continues Dick's widespread expansion into Indiana after the company purchased fellow sporting-goods retailer Galyans Trading Co. in 2004 for $362 million. Galyans was based in Plainfield, Ind., before being acquired.\nWith the Bloomington store, Dick's offers 16 locations within the state -- including nine in the Indianapolis area.\nWhile Dick's opening will add sports shopping alternatives for IU students, its effect on College Mall remains to be seen, as Dick's will compete with other sporting goods stores in the mall such as Smith's Sport'n Shoes and Finish Line. \nAlthough Dick's will add to a competitive environment within the mall and in Bloomington, Morris said the store's effect will be "very positive."\n"They draw a great cross-section of people, like the recreational sports enthusiasts, the man or woman who's playing at the HPER building on campus, to the AAU basketball player playing at the SportsPlex on Second Street, the weekend athletes that like to buy the licensed gear that they have," Morris said.\nIn Bloomington, Dick's large sporting goods layout is similar only to MC Sports, located at 3100 Susan Drive at Whitehall Crossing. Although the 50,000-square-foot size might seem like organized chaos, Dick's displays its products in a specialty shop format that is engineered "to engage consumers in a bright, organized environment," according to a press release. \nThese specialty shops include Footwear, Total Sports, Bike and Fitness and a Nike shop, among others. \nDick's is the second major retailer opening in College Mall in recent weeks. Charlotte Russe, offering clothing for women in their teens and twenties, opened in the mall Feb. 25. \nRestaurant TGI Friday's will open near Dick's on the southwest corner of College Mall at the end of the summer, said Dena Marietta, marketing director for College Mall.\n-- Contact Staff Writer John Rodgers at jprodger@indiana.edu.