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Fans Looking For Kings Merchandise Can't Get It Online

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - There are 30 NBA teams; 26 have a team store website. The Sacramento Kings haven't had a working one since June 15.

Hoping to land that Jimmer jersey? Or that T-Rob T-shirt? Don't bother checking the Kings' website. Since June, the link to the Kings' online store has been a black screen with a telephone number.

"We had a company that was helping us with our website and these are lean times in the economy," Kings spokesman Chris Clark said. "They're in business one day, the next day they're gone."

And gone was the Kings' team shop website.

"In the e-commerce industry, it takes about four months to build a website from scratch, and the way the company went under it kind of left us in a lurch," Clark said.

Since June, fans haven't been able to see an online catalog of team merchandise and all orders have had to be made over the phone or in person at Power Balance Pavilion.

"I don't feel comfortable using my card over the phone because you never know what would happen, especially nowadays," Sharnell Martin said.

Clark says May through September is the team's slowest time for merchandise sales, but the kings did draft Thomas Robinson in July and fans wanting memorabilia of the newest Kings player couldn't order anything online.

"If it happened in March, it would have been a larger disruption in service," Clark said. "It would have taken us longer to fill orders. We would have probably had to hire a staff to answer those calls."

Clark says the new team store website will be up and running in two weeks, faster than the industry standard of four months to build a website from scratch. Still, some say, the team took too long.

"I'd probably shop somewhere else. They probably would have lost my business by shutting down their website," Robert Mott said.

CBS13 called the company that ran the website, IQ Commerce. All we got was an operator saying the number was disconnected.

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