Adidas inks $150 million 10 year deal with MLS

[Jc18star]

Here is the link to the story

http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3061634

[dasoccerplayafosho]

wow... adidas just made advertising bank.

[ADIKeeper]

Bye Bye MLS :-(.

[diablo_nyc]

wow, considering emirates paid that much for the arsenal sponsorship, id say adidas got a good deal.

[giggstovieira]

in my view, biggest deal/bargain in soccer history :cool:

[Jc18star]

I think this is a good or a bad thing for the MLS more towards the the good though. The exclusive adverstising deal they have now will help and hinder in my view. They can make more money with just one company selling MLS branded gear like tee shirts and shuch but to cut off tv advertising to nike and other popular brands like puma stinks of a bad decison fuled only by the instant flow of cash that adidas is willing to pump in to a league that is very deep in the red.

Nike and the other brands will still retain uniform making rights but just can't show comericals or have their logo on the screen in form of "this portion of the match is brought to you commerial free from________" .

Now one big probelm I see is that adidas doesn't have the leagues most marketable star(s) under contract, namly Freddy Adu and lets face it I doubt if he pans out in a fashion even close to what the hype around him is nike is never going ot let him walk away. They missed the boat on David Beckham and his gravy train, they will not let another talented and well recived media darling go to their biggest rival.

I mean it's all well and good to show adidas commerical with Zidane, Becks, Ballack, Kaka, and whoever else they are sponsering but to a large part of the common market they MLS wants to appel to are going to say "Who were those guys on the commerical"? The MLS really is a loss for viable stars the media want to interact with or are worth to be shown during the half time commericals. The only ones they have that are known faces on some level are Cobi Jones(puma) Freddy and Landon(nike) and maybe Ruiz(adidas). Adidas can't show commericals of just Ruiz scoring goals everytime they have an MLS commerical.

On the plus side I feel that adidas brings a creditability factor to the table as well, adidas is soccer to most people and lots of non soccer players relate any product that adidas makes outside of the T-mac shoe and Anna K's stuff as something soccer related. The fact that the league will have a stable supplier of a match ball is something nice too. Even though it is a small thing and I hate that Puma is getting pushed out the door it shows some stability in a weird way. Like the league is finally getting established enough to have a top teir company like adidas willing to put it's name on the most visibale product outside the players boots, the match ball and symbol of the league.

Other companies will be willing now to invest more time and money into a league when a company as strong and well known as adidas is willing to make a deal worth $150 million to have exclusive rights to produce and promote their gear. I also hope this will pump some money into better froms of player development, player recruitment, and help the league ease up on some of the more off the wall player fees they were quoted as making to european club teams.

I mean lets face it the league is long way off from ever being known as one of the best on the planet and I really doubt I will see that in my lifetime but we can at least build to the point that we can produce a steady flow of top prospects for european leagues to buy and in turn strengthen our own national team. Look at places like Brasil, and Holland, their leagues are not the World best by any standard but they produce young talent that is then taken to the top across Europes vast football landscape.

I see this deal as a stepping stone in the right direction and something that is long over due as way to show the league has some staying power and ability to get stronger.

[pitz78]

Does this mean the MLS will have a 6th or 7th ball change in the 10 years of the league's existence? That has to be frustrating for players and coaches alike ... they never know how the ball will react from year to year. I, for one, really like the Puma MLS ball (maybe those will go on sale now), and I'm pretty sure that players like that ball also. Does anyone else see an Adidas Finale ball with green and blue stars? The Roteiro ball in silver and green? or maybe something new that I didn't even know about?

I agree with Jc18star ... Adidas will need to "pick up" some MLS players in order for the fans in the US to relate Adidas with the MLS. It seems to me that Adidas needed to do something to combat Nike's prominence in sports ... this is a start. The only problem is that Nike already has two of the most recognized young faces in the sport (Freddy and Landon) ... I don't see them changing anytime soon.