BRIDGEPORT — You might have heard the rumors about the black tarps hanging in the windows of Grandstand Sports.
A car drove through the front window. A spate of late-night smash-and-grabs forced owners to shutter the stalwart souvenir shop. There was a fire.
“People thought we closed,” said Josh Golan, 31, who runs Grandstand’s day-to-day operations behind the counter with his wife, Stephanie Golan.
The shop's phone rang with calls from customers concerned Grandstand had shut down. But if you walk up to the shop at 600 W. 35th St., the neighborhood’s well-traveled corridor that runs to U.S. Cellular Field, you’ll notice a bolded sign above the front door that reads: “GRANDSTAND OPEN DURING CONSTRUCTION.”
The truth is: Grandstand is in the middle of a facelift its owners hope brightens up a corner of an area some call the neighborhood's entryway.
The philosophy behind the improvement project is simple, Golan said: More modern, more with the times.
“How many people want to go into a place that looks like a used car dealership?” Golan said of Grandstand’s previous version, which sported a sign with big, bold lettering, a dirty awning and the logos of this city’s pro teams.
You can catch a glimpse of Grandstand’s new cursive logo on its website, but the shop's brick-and-mortar improvements include new windows, awnings, siding, lighting and signs.
Though construction crews have already replaced the windows, the black tarps remain to keep dust from covering the store’s merchandise — everything from jerseys to caps to socks, jackets and towels.
Owned by Bridgeport native Paul Powers and his wife Rosemary — Stephanie Golan’s parents —Grandstand opened 1988 as an 800-square-foot storefront at 35th and Halsted streets.
After a year in business, Powers moved Grandstand a few blocks closer to the old Comiskey Park and more than quadrupled his space.
Stephanie and Josh Golan have been working at the shop since 2008 — three years after the souvenir business exploded on the South Side with the White Sox World Series win.
Golan, who hopes renovations are finished before fall rolls into town, said the Grandstand family wants people to drive by the new-and-improved store and say, “Hey, that looks like a pretty cool place.”
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