Major League Soccer extends sponsorship with Adidas

DETROIT Aug 30 (Reuters) - Major League Soccer signed a new eight-year sponsorship deal with long-time partner Adidas AG ADSG.DE for a reported $200 million plus, extending a partnership that started with the league's birth.

MLS and the German athletic shoe and apparel company, the league's largest sponsor, said they had renegotiated the last four years of an existing 10-year deal and added four more years through 2018.

The league and company declined to reveal financial details of the new deal, but Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal reported it was worth more than $200 million.

"Our extension with Adidas is a major statement by an internationally respected brand that MLS is increasing in value and that our commitments to stadium construction, strategic expansion, player development and improvement in the overall quality of play are playing dividends," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in a statement.

The MLS is in its 15th season with 16 teams and plans to add three more by 2012. Attendance is up 5 percent this year, and MLS officials expect the final average will be the second highest in league history after the initial year.

Adidas, a rival of Nike Inc (NKE.N), has been an MLS partner since the U.S. soccer league's founding in 1996. In 2004, the company signed an exclusive agreement naming Adidas the official athletic sponsor and product supplier, outfitting all league teams and supplying match balls.

The new deal, which will carry the MLS through the next two World Cup tournaments in 2014 in Brazil and 2018 in a to-be-determined country, adds a focus on youth development and programming, MLS and Adidas said. Adidas is also the official sponsor of FIFA's World Cup and many soccer leagues and teams.

"The United States is a breeding ground for athletic talent and we need to ensure our home-grown athletes have viable opportunities to play soccer at the highest level," Patrik Nilsson, president of Adidas America, said in the statement. (Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit, editing by Dave Zimmerman)