[6] Modell's at one time operated 152 stores,[2] mainly in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, in addition to also having a presence Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

Mitchell Modell, the company's chief executive officer, was featured on an episode of the television series Undercover Boss that aired on November 2, 2012, in which he went in disguise into his own stores to see things from an employee point of view.

Independent retail analysts and attorneys suggested that Modell visited the store on a whim, rather than as part of some plot to steal information.

The company also stopped paying a unspecified number of landlords and some of its vendors and had started discussions with suppliers in another effort to prevent losing any further cash.

[9] However, it was not enough to save the company, and on March 11, 2020, Modell's Sporting Goods filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and announced it would permanently close all of its remaining stores.

Some writers attributed at least some of Modell's problems during the 2010s due to the poor performance of New York sports teams in that decade, and the difficulty in selling the team-related merchandise.