Another sporting goods retailer calling it quits

It’s closing time for MC Sports.



The chain, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Feb. 14, is closing all 66 of its stores across the Midwest. A joint venture between Tiger Capital Group and Great American Group is conducting the going-out-of-business sales, which are now underway.



"Like many retailers in the sporting goods industry, the company has faced increased competition, the blurring of distribution channels by key athletic and outdoor brands, increasing direct-to-consumer sales by key vendors, and the market disruption and growth of e-commerce,” MC Sports said in a statement.



Founded in 1946 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, MC Sports was one of the few remaining privately held sporting goods chains in the country. It joins a growing list of sporting goods retailers that have filed for Chapter 11 in the past 12 months, including Sports Authority, Sport Chalet, Golfsmith and, most recently, Eastern Mountain Sports.



"We are witnessing a unique era of consolidation in sporting goods retailing due in part to the rapid growth of e-commerce," said Michael McGrail, COO of Tiger Group, which provides asset valuation, advisory and disposition services to retail, wholesale, and industrial clients. "But stabilization is an inevitability; chain-wide store-closure events such as this won't continue forever in sporting goods."



MC Sports has more than $14 million in trade debt, and almost $475,000 in debt for media and marketing services, court filings show, according to the Detroit Free Press. The company currently operates 24 stores in Michigan; 11 in Ohio; seven in Indiana; eight in Illinois; seven in Wisconsin; five in Missouri, and four in Iowa.