Sellers of Giants gear make a huge score

Judging by sales at the game site and the size of the New York market, McCarthy said the league expected this year’s haul to surpass the record sales set in 1997, when Green Bay beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.

Each NFL team receives an equal share of the revenue from official Super Bowl merchandise sales, McCarthy said.

Children far removed from the game benefit as well, thanks to a partnership developed in 1994 between the NFL and the relief organization World Vision. By next week, World Vision will have delivered the pre-printed — and incorrect — Patriots champion gear to underprivileged children in Nicaragua.

Last year, the league donated Chicago Bears merchandise to children in Zambia after the Bears lost to the Indianapolis Colts, according to World Vision spokeswoman Anne Duffy.

Closer to home, Giants fans reveled in the opportunity to show their colors.

Fred Siegel, 68, a Giants fan from Marlboro who works in New York, tried on T-shirts at the Modell’s store in Herald Square.

“It’s like something that I may never see again in my lifetime,” Siegel said. “The Giants played great, the defense was fabulous, Manning finally came of age; you can’t ask for anything else.”

Even in southern New Jersey, where most fans support Philadelphia teams, Giants fans were coming out of the woodwork — and into the mall.

Betsy Atkinson, 49, from the Philadelphia suburb of Cinnaminson, bought a Giants T-shirt as a birthday gift for her husband.

“I was hoping they’d lose so the stuff would be half off,” she joked.

But few shoppers seemed interested in buying discounted Patriots gear celebrating the team’s AFC title at a City Sports store in downtown Boston.

Abraham Ho, a 19-year-old Suffolk University student from Quincy, had been counting on a Patriots victory to justify his plans to buy replica jerseys. After their loss, Ho couldn’t get enthused about spending the money.

“I was real disappointed,” said Ho. “But if I see a Patriots hat design that I like, I’ll still probably get it.”

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