Academy Sports + Outdoors and Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. have expressed interest in buying the assets of rival U.S. retailer Sports Authority Inc. that are on sale in a bankruptcy auction, Reuters reported on Friday. The auction will determine whether Sports Authority, which opened its first store in Florida in 1987 and expanded nationwide, will be sold off in pieces, or its creditors will hold on to it and try to find a buyer for its entirety. Both Dick's and Academy Sports have submitted letters of interest to buy some of the assets of Sports Authority, which filed for chapter 11 protection in March after seeing sales flatline in the face of online competition. New York City-based Modell's Sporting Goods is also interested in Sports Authority, which has 464 stores across the country. But family-owned Modell's, whose stronghold is on the U.S. East Coast, has not yet decided whether it will participate in the auction.
