Stacy Innerst, Post-Gazette Illustration Related Coverage: Our town's colorful history (or where did we find that black and gold?)

Driven by the win in Super Bowl XL, Pittsburgh Steelers merchandise is selling at a record pace.

A sporting goods research firm calculated sales of Steelers merchandise so far this year have reached $154 million, more than five times the size of the $30 million total for the same period last year. The team alone has accounted for more than 40 percent of total NFL merchandise sales this year, according to SportsScanInfo, a sporting goods research firm in West Palm Beach, Fla.

"The Steelers [win] is probably going to be the number one Super Bowl championship event in NFL history," said Ralph Galera, director of custom product finishing for Florida-based clothing maker VF Corp., which rushed licensed locker room T-shirts and sweatshirts to stores within hours of the game.

NFLShop.com reports that 84,706 Steelers Super Bowl XL championship items had been sold through last Monday.

Some of that merchandise will be on display this week when vendors licensed to sell everything from Patriots mugs and Bengals toys to Raiders comforters and Terrible Towels turn part of the club level of Heinz Field into a collection of booths displaying all the football-stamped items -- excluding apparel -- that a merchant with an NFL license can dream up.

Beginning Monday, representatives from the league's 32 teams will come to look over the offerings for the next season, as well as to observe the Steelers' own efforts to sell more stuff.

The NFL chose Pittsburgh as the site for its fourth-annual gathering last summer.

"Not all of our clubs have made as large a commitment to the merchandising as the Packers and Steelers," said Leo Kane, the NFL's senior director of licensing and consumer products. Both teams consistently are among the league's leaders in sales of licensed goods and operate their own stores packed with goods.

Mr. Kane singled out the Green Bay Packers because they were hosts to the very first of these NFL trade shows back in 2003. Before then, the licensed goods offerings showed up as part of other trade shows.

The league decided to do its own show so it could time the event between seasons and so that strong merchandising teams could share their best practices. It's kind of like Ben Roethlisberger getting tips from Dan Marino, concentrating on the techniques and hoping for a little of the magic.

That first summit focused on the teams and the vendors but retailers have gained importance in the subsequent years. Invitations were sent to J.C. Penney, Dick's Sporting Goods, the Finish Line, Eastbay, Hat World, Giant Eagle, Party City, HSN (Home Shopping Network) and TJMaxx, among others. The Steelers also asked some local retailers to come, including Honus Wagner and Steel City Hobbies.

In the past, retail stores operated by businesses outside the league were among the only outlets for professional football items. Now, in addition to online stores operated by the league and its teams, more than half of the football clubs operate their own bricks-and-mortar stores, according to Mr. Kane's estimates.

That statistic is tied closely to the organizations that have moved into new stadiums, which often have the room for team stores.

Just how much further the NFL can exploit its retailing opportunities is unclear. It already sells an estimated $3.4 billion in licensed goods, putting the league slightly behind Major League Baseball in 2004, according to License! magazine.

If any team has the right formula for opening wallets just now, it is the Steelers. SportsScanInfo credited a 35 percent increase in NFL sales activity so far this year mainly to the "blitz" buying of Steelers fans.

The single biggest category increase has been in licensed NFL T-shirts, up more than 500 percent in dollar volume as consumers eager to wear their pride buy, buy, buy. Clothing maker VF Corp. does not release sales numbers but Mr. Galera said the company sold enough clothing items to attire all of the 1.3 million or people who live in Allegheny County -- and more.

It takes a bit longer to produce other types of Super Bowl merchandise, such as mugs and footballs, so sales of those items could start picking up as the year continues.

"Kudos to the fans," said Neil D. Schwartz, SpotsScanInto's director of marketing and business development and an industry observer who estimated the Steelers' 42 percent share of overall NFL merchandise sold so far may be twice the typical experience of Super Bowl champion teams.

Even the team can't keep up. The shopping section of www.steelers.com on Friday posted a message warning that, because of overwhelming demand, orders could not be rushed using two-day or overnight shipping.

Counterfeiters have been busy as well. In the week before and after the Super Bowl, the NFL said more than 5,000 counterfeit items worth more than $100,000 were seized in Pittsburgh. Eighty percent were T-shirts and hats.

It's no secret that winning is the most important factor in selling team merchandise, said Mr. Kane. And it's no secret that Steelers fans are good for a bigger pop than most, which made outcome of Super Bowl XL good news for the NFL and its merchants.

"We can root for the team that generates the most royalties," said Mr. Kane. "No one in the merchandising world was sad when the Steelers won."