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Nike boosts soccer league
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October 22, 1997: 6:57 a.m. ET
Athletic apparel giant to give $120 million to sponsor U.S.
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - U.S. soccer is expected to get a big boost from athletic apparel giant Nike.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Nike will pay about $120 million over eight years to sponsor the U.S. Soccer Federation, the governing body for leading men's, women's and youth soccer teams.
The deal, expected to be announced Wednesday, will be about 10 times richer than the current Nike contract and 100 times richer than the federation's previous sponsorship deal with Germany's Adidas.
Sources close to the talks told the newspaper Adidas mounted an 11-hour offense to get the sponsorship back, although Adidas officials denied those reports.
Nike will outfit all U.S. national teams and in return will receive prominent field-level signs at U.S. matches as well as the right to buy television advertising during U.S. games and to sponsor men's and women's tournaments.
Nike's commitment comes as the athletic apparel company is mounting an effort to draw more business from the world's most popular sport. Nike last year only had a 12 percent share of the worldwide soccer shoe market last year, substantially less than leader Adidas which came in at 42 percent, according to research firm Sporting Goods Intelligence.
However, over the past two years, Nike has signed marketing deals with national soccer federations in Brazil, the Netherlands, Italy, South Korea, Russia and Nigeria in hopes of drawing a larger share of the $5 billion a year soccer shoe business.
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