Dick’s Sporting Goods latest super store is set to open in Brandon Oct. 31.
The Pittsburgh retailer will officially open its new House of Sport concept at the Brandon Exchange mall in suburban Tampa on Halloween with a ceremonial ribbon cutting and a weekend’s worth of events.
The store is on the east side of the 1.1 million-square-foot mall in an anchor space previously occupied by Sears and vacant for at least four years.
The House of Sport stores are about 100,000 square feet and feature rock climbing walls and multiple golf bays with TrackMan simulators along with the company’s traditional product offerings. The stores also have multi-sport cages for baseball, softball, lacrosse and soccer to give athletes an opportunity to try products while measuring and tracking their performance.
Dick’s launched what it calls its “multi-sport experiential” stores in 2021 and currently has two open in the state, one at Tampa’s International Plaza and the other in Miami. A sign for a coming soon House of Sport location hangs in the parking lot at the Mall at University Town Center in Sarasota, as well.
To mark the grand opening of the Brandon location, Dick’s will have specials and giveaways. It is also hosting meet-and-greets with former Tampa Bay Buccaneer and New England Patriot tight end Rob Gronkowski Sunday and current Buccaneer running back Bucky Irving Saturday.
(Check Dick’s website for the rules and regulations of the athlete event.)
Dick’s, which recently closed on the purchase of Foot Locker for $2.4 billion, has 723 stores nationwide, including 19 House of Sport locations as of Aug. 2.
In Florida, it has 40 stores with 11 along the Gulf Coast.