Sports Authority slashes 100 jobs

The layoffs aremostly at its Englewood corporate office.

Sports Authority, the sporting goods retailer struggling to avoid bankruptcy, this week cut about 100 jobs, mostly from its Englewood corporate headquarters, a spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

The cuts included 16 people in the team sales division, a unit that sells sports equipment and uniforms to a variety of youth, high school and college sports teams, according to a former employee who was notified Tuesday.

This month, Sports Authority skipped an interest payment on its $ 343 million of subordinated notes due in February 2018. The company is using its 30- day grace period to negotiate with bondholders, Bloomberg News reported, citing an unnamed source.

If those talks fall through, privately held Sports Authority likely will seek bankruptcy protection, the source told Bloomberg.

The 450- store chain has at least $ 643 million of debt.

The layoffs are part of a “balance sheet restructuring” aimed at reducing the debt load, the company said in an e- mailed statement. Sports Authority will have about 750 fulltime corporate employees after the cuts.

“We remain very focused on implementing a comprehensive operational plan that will support this effort while improving our ability to engage with our customers in stores and online,” the statement said. “While this action was difficult, we believe this was a necessary step in our plan to return SportsAuthority to long- term profitable growth.”

Fred Jacobsen, owner of Sportline in Arvada, said he has talked with several of the team- sales employees who lost their jobs.

He hopes to recruit some of the division’s workers and customers.

“It’s obviously an opportunity for us,” he said.“We hope to make it an opportunity for those employees as well.”