Academy Sports Gearing Up for Friday Opening

Passers-by have seen the sign for weeks, but on Friday, they’ll finally get to walk through the doors of Paulding’s newest sporting goods store, Academy Sports + Outdoors.

This will be the 142^nd store for the Texas-based company and its seventh in Georgia, according to a news release from the company. The Hiram store will be Academy’s fourth metro Atlanta-area location, with all four beginning operations within the previous year. McDonough was the first in the metro area to welcome Academy, followed by and .

How do you feel about Academy Sports’ arrival into Paulding? Tell us in the comments.

The new store’s doors will open to the public at 8 a.m., with the first 70 customers in line receiving a free 20-inch youth Huffy bike.

The opening comes more than a year after another store closed down at the same location. The Kroger Company shut down its Hiram store in February 2011, in the Atlanta marketplace. Word of Academy’s ; demolition of the old Kroger building and construction of a new structure for the sports store soon followed.

Academy’s Hiram store boasts more than 74,000 square feet of footwear, apparel, sports and leisure products, as well as hunting, fishing and camping equipment. Services to be offered at the facility include a digital golf simulator, an archery lane and more. The store will employ about 150 associates.

Eric Herrera, senior communications coordinator for Academy Sports, said that while the store officially opens Friday, officials plan to hold a grand opening event in the next few weeks.

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