CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, June 24: Since the pandemic that started in early 2020, many local football tournaments were put on hold for two years. As a result of this, many sports shop owners had to face losses as there were fewer sales of football gear in the city.
However, with things slowly falling into place it seems like the sale of football and football equipment will be on a higher side as compared to the last two years, as suggested by sports shop owners.
The owner of Ideal Sports in Lalpur has said that they are expecting a better sale than last two years but it completely depends on the rainfall this year.
“So far the sale has only been 10 percent of the total stock which we have but we are expecting a better sale. However, it all depends on the rainfall. If there is proper rainfall then that will urge the youth to play football and it will ultimately help us in our sales,” he said.
He added that for the last two years, there was no football season in Ranchi due to the pandemic.
The owner of another sports shop Dharmesh Sports said that due to the high prices of sports equipment, they have tended to buy limited stocks this year and the response has not been so good so far.
“The sale has been quite average so far and we hope that in the coming days there will be more sales. The prices have gone up on all the products so we have bought limited stocks this time,” he said.
The major sports shops in Ranchi such as Raj Sports, Prime Sports and Bhatia Sports have also stocked up their shops with football jerseys, boots, footballs and other gear.