Nike Chair Phil Knight says MLB "screwed up" in letting
the Yankees enter into a $95M sponsorship deal with adidas,
according to an AP report in the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. Knight
added that Nike "will not rush out to sign teams" (N.Y.
DAILY NEWS, 3/11). Nike was in talks with MLB for a
sponsorship deal covering multiple teams, but Knight said
the negotiations were unsuccessful because MLB "let each
team make its own deal, and they can't bind them. So what's
the use in making the deal" (USA TODAY, 3/11). Knight: "It
hurts those teams and it hurts the teams in total" (Portland
OREGONIAN, 3/11).
IMPACT OF YANKS-ADIDAS: The Yankees-adidas deal is
examined in this morning's CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR as Mark
Sappenfield writes the Yankees are "beginning to chip away
at the foundation" of MLB's labor agreement -- revenue
sharing. Nike's MLB sponsorship deal would have provided
each team $350,000 annually, but the revenue from the adidas
deal will give the Yankees "superior financial resources
when signing new players" (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, 3/11).
In Toronto, Jim Hunt on Steinbrenner: "Curious George can
make his own shoe deal, torpedoing the chances of one for
the sport" (TORONTO SUN, 3/11).
