BY MIKE HELENTHAL
DANVILLE — Danville School District 118 officials are struggling to keep up with the demand for anything showing support for the No. 1 ranked Danville Vikings football team.
“I ordered a bunch of stuff in August and we’ve already run out of that,” said Cathy Flannery, district athletic department secretary, in charge of ordering and selling playoff merchandise.
“It seems like everyone in the community is really pulling together,” she said. “I wish I had hindsight. Right now people are buying (merchandise) wherever they can find it.”
And finding it is proving somewhat problematic.
When playoff merchandise was ordered the Vikings were expected to have a great season, but it wasn’t known then that by November they would be just one step away from a state championship game berth.
“I was kind of scared of getting stuck with some” if the order was too large, she said.
And because it took so long for the order to even arrive, Flannery said the option of re-ordering has long passed.
Shirley Woodward of Danville Paper and Supply said the company has been getting phone calls ever since it made its first order of Viking helmets — which sold out almost immediately.
“We should have some more by tomorrow,” she said Tuesday. “The girls (in the office) kind of instigated it. They all get together and find what they can.”
The company ordered a few dozen more helmets and is also selling necklaces. It is almost out of banners made for the playoff run.
Ned Luke, owner of the downtown, local-sports themed restaurant Varsity Room, said he wishes he could find merchandise to sell. He’s also had to depend on the limited supply available at the school.
“If I had it I’d be selling it like crazy right now,” he said.
“Right now, all I’ve got is playoff shirts,” Flannery said.
And the district had to do a little scrambling of its own just to ensure the shirts were available.
Flannery said the district turned to the Danville Correctional Center’s manufacturing division for the current supply of shirts, but even that supply chain was put into question early on.
After the order was made, Flannery said she was informed IHSA rules prohibit the use of its logos or the mention of the state tournament — which includes any round of the football playoffs. After being contacted by the primary vendor used by IHSA, Flannery said officials tried to get a ruling from the IHSA on the already ordered shirts.
“I kind of never really got an answer,” said Joe Tamalunis, the prison’s superintendent. He then contacted the Illinois attorney general’s office.
“They said, since the order was already made, you can keep processing it,” he said.
Inmates create specialty shirts and jackets for many area groups. Correctional Industries is registered as a nonprofit organization, though it still must follow royalty and licensing rules.
“We’re just trying to put the shirts out to the community at a low cost,” Tamalunis said. “It’s a way of getting some money back for (a taxpayer’s) buck.”
One local shop owner, Chuck Haga of Apparel Unlimited, claimed giving the contract to the prison was unfair and had affected his business.
“That’s supposed to be a nonprofit organization,” he said. “We get more business from out of the area, believe it or not. We sell Danville Vikings and all area sports logos all year around, but the (playoff) games haven’t boosted us that much.”
Tamalunis said IHSA royalty rules were somewhat “gray” and he is worried future merchandise orders from local schools might be in jeopardy.
“No one wants to do anything intentionally wrong,” he said, “and we’re not in the business of taking money away from a mom-and-pop business or even a large business. My concern is when we’re asked to make a T-shirt for the Georgetown-Westville football game.”
Matt Troha, IHSA assistant executive director, said the high school sports governing body has had a royalty policy in place for years, but made changes this year that reduce licensing fees paid by some schools.
Traditionally a school-sponsored playoff shirt carrying the IHSA logo would carry a $500 licensing fee and 8 percent royalty on the merchandise.
“The school is never really paying us money directly,” he said.
Schools are expected to become concerned about licensing, “Once you get to the state series. It applies if a school’s going to have any T-shirts made or programs printed.”
“We were finding it just wasn’t worth it for some schools to pay that for only one event,” he said.
This year the IHSA adopted rules handing out a three-event license for just $100. He said the Danville situation was settled with a $50 fee agreement for the football team’s run.
The money the IHSA collects goes for administration of the tournaments and directly to participating teams through travel costs and hosting rights. Last year the IHSA collected $5.5 million from championship tournaments, almost half of which was “returned directly to schools,” Troha said.
“It’s a way for the IHSA and the partner schools to make a little money off the event,” he said.
The definitions of tournament differ between football and basketball, with licensing required for all football playoff games held after the regular season, but not for basketball regional, sectional or super-sectional games.
Once a school team is ensured of a championship game at Memorial Field in Champaign, or the Peoria Civic Center for basketball, Troha said, all merchandise is created through an exclusive contract with Bloomington-based Minerva Promotions.
“Afterward, (individual schools) can print a shirt,” he said.
COMING UP
A “Whole Town Pep Rally” in support of the Danville High School Vikings football team will take place at 6 tonight at Temple Plaza. The public is invited.
