Canadian Press article from Ives. Its a 10 year/$200 million deal that includes many of the same things as the current 10 year/$150 million deal that was started in 2004. This sponsorship includes equipment, kits, and Generation adidas contracts. The current adidas kit forms were originally released, I believe, with MLS teams and the same goes for the Jabulani ball. Generation adidas is a program that provides sizeable contract for top college underclassmen and youth players as an enticement for them to leave school and turn pro. The contracts also include a clause where adidas will provide college scholarships for players who fail to make it in MLS. What's key about this deal is the extra money is focused on the reserve league and youth development. With the academy system in place, the time is right to loosen some of the roster restrictions that doomed the old reserve league. The old reserve division ran from 2005 to 2008, but MLS teams were only permitted to retain 25 players on contract. Assuming 14 players played in the previous match, clubs were left with exactly 11 players for the next day's reserve league match. When injuries were factored in, many teams resorted to playing coaches just to field a full side. Assuming a great deal of this money is funneled towards the reserve league, teams could be allowed to play not only guys under contract, but also players from their youth academies. Travel situations would be improved as the old reserve league matches were typically the Sunday after a Saturday league match.
I think I was both understating the impact of this and doing the math wrong. Its actually an 8 year/$200 million deal. So sponsorship goes from $15 mil to $25 mil per year, which is much more significant than what I thought was the change when I first read the article. And here's some more info on the deal and what it means from the CBS Business site. Turns out MLS has an average attendance that is roughly on par with the NBA and NHL with just an average of 1,000 fans difference per game. The article compares MLS attendance to the Dutch Eredivisie and and French Lige 1 and its not far off at all. Seems like adidas is suggesting that MLS can pass the NBA and NHL with this deal. In my opinion, its already passed NHL, but that isn't the popular opinion in the States.
I'll be interested in seeing what this means for the reserve league. I'd love to see some sort of link between the reserve league and either the USSF D2 or the USL2 (US Third Division) to give the players some real competition and also improve MLS scouting among American based players.
