CMS To Manage Huskers Authentic

Lincoln  -- Beginning on July 1, 2003, Huskers Authentic, the official team merchandise store for Nebraska athletics, will be under new management. CMS, Collegiate Marketing Services, was awarded the contract by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents at its June meeting on Saturday.

CMS was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Overland Park, Kan. Led by CEO Steve Ballard, CMS also manages athletic merchandise for several other universities, including Oklahoma, Arizona, Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Kansas State and Tulsa. CMS will not only supervise and manage the on-campus Huskers Authentic store, but will also manage Internet, catalog and stadium sales. The agreement is a five-year contract, effective July 1, 2003.

The CMS contract provides to the athletic department 25 percent of Huskers Authentic gross revenues for revenues up to and including $1,500,000; 30 percent of Huskers Authentic gross revenues for revenues that exceed $1,500,000, up to and including $2,000,000; and 35 percent of Huskers Authentic gross revenues for revenues exceeding $2,000,000.

Because of the change in management, the Huskers Authentic store, located at 625 Stadium Drive, will be closed from July 1 to July 14. Huskers Authentic will resume normal business hours (10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Saturdays)on July 15. No web site orders will be filled during this two-week period, as the web page will undergo construction to become more customer friendly. Customized jersey orders will not be taken from June 9 to July 14 while these transitions take place.

Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson said the changes will enable the athletic department to better serve its fans. "While we will be in transition for two weeks, I am confident that the changes made at the store and on the internet site will benefit our fans and the athletic department for years to come."

Abele Named Director of Internet Operations
In other related news, Steve Pederson has named Jeff Abele Director of Internet Operations. In his new role, Abele will oversee all duties, budget and staff issues associated with the athletic department's official website Huskers.com and its premium service HuskersNside. He has already launched a major redesign that will be released in August to ensure a seamless interface with the news, ecommerce, subscriber and ticketing portions of the site. He will provide all design elements for the site and continue to produce the graphical look of all Husker sports publications.

Abele has served the last four years as an assistant sports information director and has nine years of experience in the Nebraska athletic department. He will continue to serve as Nebraska's publications coordinator for the athletic department and is the primary graphic designer for all 23 of the athletic department's sports.

Abele's design skills are much publicized as he has won four "Best in the Nation" awards from CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America). Most recently, Abele's men's basketball poster won best in the nation in the overall poster competition, edging out Auburn's men's basketball poster and Texas' football poster, while his baseball poster was sixth overall in the nation.

Abele earned his bachelor's degrees in news-editorial and advertising from UNL in 1998.