Sports Authority May Close All of Its Stores

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Sports Authority is officially calling it quits, with the decision to sell off its remaining assets including 450 stores nationwide.

Back in March, the Colorado-based company announced it would close 140 stores and two distribution centers when they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But any attempts to restructure and reorganize came to a halt early last week when Sports Authority notified the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware that they would pursue a sale instead, Forbes reports.

The news comes amidst a struggling sporting goods industry — one that can't seem to keep up with evolving shopping habits despite a growing interest in the athleisure trend. While stores like Eastern Mountain Sports and Sport Chalet are closing up shop across the country, e-commerce heavy mass-distributors like Nike and Amazon are thriving.

Sports Authority is currently $1.1 billion in debt, and its annual revenue tops off at around $2.7 billion (the same amount they were making back in 2006), according to Business Insider.

Update: A Sports Authority spokesperson says that they are focusing all of their efforts on selling the business, as of right now. You can read the entire statement below:

"At the beginning of the Chapter 11 process, Sports Authority was pursuing two tracks: one track involved a financial restructuring through a standalone Plan of Reorganization, and the other track involved an M&A process and the potential sale of our business or certain assets. As Sports Authority disclosed to the Court on Tuesday, April 26th, we are no longer pursuing the standalone Plan of Reorganization track because we could not get our  lenders to agree on the terms of such a Plan. Therefore, we are now focusing solely on the M&A track and are pursuing a sale of some or all of the business. We have received initial expressions of interest from a number potential buyers, and we are optimistic about the results of the M&A process which runs through the end of May. We continue to move forward with our previously announced plan to close approximately 140 stores.  The outcome of the M&A process will determine whether any additional store closings will be required."