UPDATE: Sports Authority to close all US stores after failing to find buyer

Dive Brief:

UPDATE: Sports Authority will close all of its 450-plus stores in the U.S. after failing to procure a buyer, a new court filing disclosed. The document didn't give any timeline for the store closures, and a company spokesperson had no comment for CNN Money. The company had 14,500 employees at the time of its March bankruptcy filing, according to CNN Money, two-thirds of them part time.
The bankruptcy auction that was Sports Authority's last chance at a reorganization became a duel between two groups of liquidators Tuesday, with a bid from a group including Tiger Capital Group, Gordon Brothers, and Hilco Global winning the retailer’s assets in the end, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Store closing sales could begin as soon as May 25 and the 140 stores already run by the winning group have already begun to liquidate. Sports Authority is expected to split the bid with the winners, and that will be enough to cover an asset-backed loan of some $345 million and another of $95 million loan, but not $646 million owed to creditors lower on the food chain, according to Bloomberg.
An auction for Sports Authority's name and Denver Broncos stadium naming rights had no takers, and Sports Authority still owes the Broncos a quarterly payment of more than $1 million.

Dive Insight:

Sports Authority’s last best chance at survival was a pre-auction offer from New York-based Modell’s sporting goods, which would have had some stores continue to operate under the Sports Authority name. But Modell’s walked away before the bidding Monday because the sides couldn’t agree on a number, according to Bloomberg.

With little interest in the company’s intellectual property, in fact, the name may not be seen again.

The retailer is in this situation thanks to a few major self-inflicted wounds, including a huge debt load, failures to weather market fluctuations and an inability to compete online with the likes of Amazon, sporting goods rivals such as Dick’s, and general merchandisers like Target.

Details of Sports Authority's struggles emerged earlier this year. News of missing payments to suppliers and a failure to make a $20 million interest payment soon followed, culminating in store closings and employee layoffs.

Notably, Dick’s Sporting Goods wasn’t in the mix Monday. A forecast issued last week by investment bank Canaccord Genuity held that if Dick's acquires the 80 Sports Authority stores that do not have competitors within a 10-to 25-mile radius, Dick's could gain $500 million in incremental sales.

But Morgan Stanley earlier in the month had also downgraded Dick’s on the very issue of too many stores. Still, Dick’s will be able to pick up some portion of the sales slack left in Sports Authority’s wake.