Two hours before the Johnson City Dick’s Sporting Goods House of Sport officially opened its doors Friday, finishing touches were being made to the expansive new store.
Employees stocked shelves, wiped down treadmills and set up booths for a scavenger hunt throughout the space, ensuring everything was in its place.
Around an hour before, a line of people began to grow outside the upper entrance, eventually snaking along the side of the Oakdale Commons.
And half an hour before, everyone who helped this particular dream become reality gathered in a large circle right inside the front doors to usher in the largest store the company has ever made.
Dick’s Sporting Goods officials kicked off its newest location’s grand opening Friday ahead of an event-filled weekend.
“This business really has its heart and soul and its roots here in Binghamton,” Dick’s Sporting Goods executive chairman Ed Stack said before the ribbon cutting outside the store Friday morning. “It’s a business that my father started as an 18-year-old kid with just basically a dream … The business has come a long way.”
What to expect inside the new store
The two-level Dick’s House of Sport, located at the south end of the Oakdale Commons, encompasses 140,000 square feet and outside, a track wraps around a 17,000 square-foot turf field, which allows people to try products and will double as an ice rink during the winter.
The first floor is filled with multiple sections of apparel, an extensive footwear department, an indoor climbing wall and a repair shop, where customers can get their bikes tuned up, tennis rackets strung and skate blades sharpened.
Also, near the store’s entrance to the remainder of the Oakdale Commons, there is a heritage space which features a replica of founder Dick Stack’s original bait and tackle shop sign and a timeline of the company’s history, along with lifetime Dick’s Sporting Goods employee and “heart and soul of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open” Tim Myers’ cookie jar, received…
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