sptrem:UH Athletics Holding Contest to Rename Gift StoreHOUSTON –In an effort to
provide improved merchandise with higher quality and customer service, the
University of Houston Athletics Department recently entered into a partnership
with Barnes & Noble College Booksellers to manage the Cougars’ gift and
apparel store, Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades recently
announced.
Located on the first floor of the Athletics/Alumni
Center near the Athletics Ticket Office, the new store will offer more brand
names from which fans can choose. Barnes & Noble personnel also will sell
merchandise at home events.
“We are very excited about working with Barnes &
Noble College Booksellers in the management of our gift and apparel store,”
Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Operations Darren Dunn said.
“Barnes and Noble has earned a well-deserved reputation with its work on college
campuses across the country, and we look forward to seeing how it will
reenergize our merchandise sales, both in the store and
online.”
The old Cougar Authentic store recently closed, giving
Barnes & Noble representatives time to move in and redesign the physical
layout of the store. The new store reopened Monday.
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers
operate bookstores at more than 600 U.S. college and universities, serving
nearly 4 million students and more than 250,000 faculty
members.
NAMING THE NEW STORE
With the store under a new
partnership, Houston administrators now are reaching out to fans for help in
coming up with a new name.
From now through July 23, fans can submit their
suggested names for the new gift and apparel store. After the deadline,
Athletics Department administrators and Barnes & Noble representatives will
review all ideas and select a winner. If more than one entry has the winning
name, officials will draw for the winner.
The new name will be announced in early
August.
Fans can submit their ideas for the new store’s name
online at UHCougars.com.
PRIZES
The winning
entry will win $100 in merchandise from the new store and four tickets to a 2010
Cougar Football game.
