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Five analysts and top management from sixteen sector firms examine the Leisure Goods & Services sector in this special 89-page issue from The Wall Street Transcript, available at (212/952-7433) or http://www.twst.com/info/info384.htm

TWST: What has been driving these companies? And to what extent are consumers likely to cut back on spending on recreation and leisure in a weaker economy?

Mr. Conder: To a great extent this sector is a demographic play on a generation with more disposable income. Secondly, you referred to the influence of spending on leisure. Each of these companies manufactures products or provides services which are discretionary items that are used to provide recreation and relieve stress. Because of the uniqueness of the product/service provided, there is a wide degree of cyclical variance among these companies. So at times when we’re witnessing a slowdown in the revenue streams for some of these companies, others are performing quite well.

TWST: Moving on to auto racing, which I believe has been the fastest growing sport over the past few years.

Mr. Conder: It has had a very nice run over the last several years. That has been fueled by NASCAR and a new six-year television package between NASCAR and their television partners Fox, NBC and Turner Sports (2001 is the first year of the deal). This agreement should serve to further broaden the interest in NASCAR as a majority of the races are now on network stations. Additionally, you have a lot of corporate sponsors and advertising connected with the sport. All of these items have fueled interest over the last several years and should continue to benefit the sport going forward.

TWST: What’s your outlook for the long-term growth of motor sports?

Mr. Conder: In the US we think these companies have entered a more mature stage of their life cycle. You continue to have opportunity related to NASCAR from ancillary rights, that being Internet, international broadcast, and other related type of rights separate from the already signed and in place television agreement. So there’s some opportunity there. There’s opportunity, as always, to add additional seats. But I think we’ve seen the peak in that because you’re starting to hit some price resistance from the consumer. We started to see this exhibited last year with the increasing resistance related to the ticket prices that consumers are willing to pay to attend an event. We believe from an overall NASCAR, Winston Cup perspective, you have limited pricing power for the seats. Therefore, it boils down to the ancillary broadcast rights and garnering additional sponsors (both are more of a cyclical nature) and the ability to add non-NASCAR events at a facility (whether that be additional racing events or non-racing types of shows to run more people through the turnstiles) to drive additional revenue.

TWST: What have you been recommending investors do with Meade Instruments (Nasdaq:MEAD)?

Mr. Conder: We upgraded the company a couple of months ago to Maintain on the premise that we believe we’ve seen the worst in the fundamentals for the company. But now we’re just waiting for evidence that the company is working through some inventories. And keep in mind that this is a very seasonable business with peak sales in retail coming in the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday periods.

This special issue includes:

1) Leisure Goods & Services - In an in-depth (4,100 words) Analyst Interview, Timothy Conder, Vice President at A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., examines the outlook for the sector and shares specific stock recommendations.

2) Leisure Industry Overview - In an in-depth (3,700 words) Analyst Interview, Hayley Kissel, Director of Merrill Lynch's Global Securities Research and Economics Division, examines the outlook for the sector and shares specific stock recommendations.

3) Outlook for Leisure Stocks - In an in-depth (3,900 words) Analyst Interview, Scott Barry, Director in Credit Suisse First Boston's Equity Research group, examines the outlook for the sector and shares specific stock recommendations.

4) Cruise Lines & Motor Sports - In an in-depth (2,600 words) Analyst Interview, Joseph Hovorka, Senior Analyst at Raymond James & Associates, examines the outlook for the sector and shares specific stock recommendations.

5) Outlook for Cruise Lines - In an in-depth (4,100 words) Analyst Interview, Robin Farley, Executive Director in the equity research division of UBS Warburg, examines the outlook for the sector and shares specific stock recommendations.

6) CEO interviews (average 2,500 words). Top management of sixteen sector firms examine the outlook for their firm and the sector.