MLS secure Adidas to improved sponsorship deal

Major League Soccer (MLS) and Adidas have signed an eight-year sponsorship deal which will go into effect from 2011, reports euFootball.BIZ

This new deal replaces an earlier 10-year deal of $150 million which started in 2005.

An anonymous source said that the new arrangement is worth over $200 million.

Adidas America president Patrik Nilsson said, "Both of us are feeling really good about the partnership we have had since the start of the MLS and the first deal that we did. ... We both felt this was the time to talk this deal out for a longer time frame and for spending the money on the youth development of the game in the U.S."

MLS Commissioner Don Garber appreciates the endorsement from Adidas. "That's a great statement about the league that this company, very well respected football soccer company that has a very distinct and clear vision for the sport in North America and sees MLS as the cornerstone for that vision. That's an important thing for us….The goal will be to make a very direct link between our academies, our reserve league, our youth programs with a lot of the other youth programs going on in this country. Adidas can play a very important role in creating that bridge and solidifying all those ties."