FORT KENT – For those in charge of Biathlon World Cup 2004 souvenirs, empty shelves are a beautiful sight.

Organizers have stocked hundreds of shirts, hats, pins, mugs, key rings and even golf balls in the hope that every visitor attending the international event that takes place March 3-6 returns home with something that displays “Biathlon World Cup 2004: Fort Kent, Maine, USA.”

Close to 300 athletes, coaches, officials and technicians are expected to start arriving this weekend in Fort Kent, which is host town of the 2004 Biathlon World Cup. By the time the competition starts next Wednesday, thousands of spectators are anticipated in and around the downtown area, and event organizers hope they will all be looking for something to purchase.

“Souvenirs were one of the things we started talking about early on,” Stephen Gagne, a local volunteer in charge of promotional materials, said Wednesday. “We put together a buyers’ group of volunteers and we looked through a lot of catalogs.”

Gagne said his group had no end of outside suggestions for merchandise, some of which are on the shelves – such as baseball-style caps and beer mugs. But don’t look for biathlon bobble-head figures.

“Those were just too expensive,” he said.

Official World Cup merchandise ranges in price from postcards at $1.20 to the more costly zippered jackets at $55.

In setting the prices, Gagne said, several variables came into play.

“We knew the volunteers [and] sponsors would get some kind of discount,” he said. “We priced things so we can make some sort of profit and have seed money for future events.”

In addition, two University of Maine at Fort Kent business students are working as paid interns at the World Cup store.

The 2004 Biathlon World Cup souvenir store is located on West Main Street below the Fort Kent Public Library.Initial funding to stock the store came through the Maine Winter Sports Center.

Sales have been brisk over the past several weeks and, according to Gagne, more than $20,000 in goods had been sold through the end of January.

Spectators at this past weekend’s Can-Am dog sled races in Fort Kent snapped up numerous items, Jaimie Doucette, UMFK intern, said.

“I was really surprised at the amount of people in here last Saturday,” she said.

Some of those same shoppers, Gagne said, found their way up to the World Cup venue at the 10th Mountain Division Lodge, where organizers patiently explained the competition schedules, transportation options and answered questions.

“Some of these people who came from out of town to see the Can-Am said they may be back for the biathlon,” Gagne said.

By its very nature, Biathlon 2004 World Cup merchandise is dated material, and once the event is over, so too is the marketability of related items.

“Now we are faced with getting all of it sold over the next seven days,” Gagne said. “I hope on Saturday [at the end of the World Cup] we have very little or nothing left.”

In addition to the legions of fans the event is expected to draw, more than 1,700 school-age children will be bused in from around Maine and neighboring New Brunswick, Gagne said.

“We hope they will all leave with something,” he said.

Souvenir items include cowbells and horns – noise-making items traditionally associated with biathlon competitions in Europe.

“Hopefully no parents will be calling me,” he said with a laugh.

The biathlon World Cup store is open noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 3 p.m. Saturday.

When competitions begin, those hours will expand to 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily throughout the event. An additional store will open from 1-3 p.m. at the World Cup venue starting Wednesday, March 3.

The more items sold, Gagne said, means the more global exposure for Fort Kent as potential shoppers could be coming from around the country and Europe.

“A couple of weeks from now there could be people all around the world wearing things that say ‘Fort Kent, Maine, USA’ on them,” Gagne said. “How great is that?”

Merchandise is also available online at www.fortkentbiathlon.org.