Saturday’s Herbalife World Football Challenge match between the MLS Galaxy and Real Madrid at L.A. Coliseum has sold approximately 50,000 tickets so far, and Galaxy officials are confident the match will sell 10,000 additional seats by game time. Single-game tickets range from $52.80-524.10 (including fees) on Ticketmaster.com, with lower-bowl seats still available for $216.75. On StubHub.com, 594 tickets were selling for the game, with seats in the upper east end priced at $55 and lower-section seats selling for $170. MLS officials declined to release ticket numbers for Saturday’s WFC game between Mexico’s Club America and Manchester City at AT&T Park in S.F. (Fred Dreier, SportsBusiness Journal).

The L.A. area on Saturday night is also hosting MLS Red Bulls-Chivas USA match at The Home Depot Center at 7:30pm, a half hour after the start of the Real Madrid-Galaxy contest. Complicating the situation is "what locals call 'Carmageddon,' the gridlock expected from the closing of 10 miles of the San Diego Freeway between Interstate 10 and Highway 101 for repairs and widening" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/15).

NASCAR President Mike Helton said that the organization is "determined to find out what went wrong with the enormous traffic problems" during last Saturday's Sprint Cup Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway "to ensure they do not occur again." Helton: "We were very pleased with the overall response at Kentucky last week, but we take what happened very serious. ... We will not let this fall to the wayside." Helton is "confident the mistakes can be rectified," adding, "I'd like to think we will overcome the glitch" (ESPN.com, 7/15).

ESPN on Friday released a statement saying that it did not suspend football reporter Bruce Feldman in light of his contributions to former Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach's book, "Swing Your Sword." The statement reads, "There was never any suspension or any other form of disciplinary action. We took the time to review his upcoming work assignments in light of the book to which he contributed and will manage any conflicts or other issues as needed. Bruce has resumed his assignments" (THE DAILY).

President Obama is sending a "presidential delegation" to Sunday's U.S.-Japan FIFA Women's World Cup final in Frankfurt, Germany. The delegation will be lead by Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, and will include Chelsea Clinton (USATODAY.com, 7/15). After the U.S. defeated France in the semifinals, several players "told how the presence of the Commander in Chief would cap off a spectacular tournament" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 7/13).

Meanwhile, Germany-based market research firm Sport+Markt tweeted, "39% of Japanese women are football fans – almost double the proportion in the USA (20%)" (TWITTER.com, 7/15).

Ravens CB and NFLPA Exec Committee member Domonique Foxworth during CBA talks with the NFL this week informed the owners of a "secret lockout fund" that would pay each player roughly $200,000 "if there were no football in 2011." NFLPA Exec Dir DeMaurice Smith "slightly more than a year ago" received approval from the NFLPA exec committee to secure the insurance, and he "disclosed the fund to only a handful of people." Sources close to the owners said that the disclosure on Wednesday "definitely got that side's attention" (SI.com, 7/15).

The seventh annual "Don't Give Up ESPYs V Foundation Auction" raised $810,955 for The V Foundation for Cancer Research, a 61% percent increase over last year's total of $504,000. The event has raised more than $4.9M in its seven years. The annual event offered more than 200 items and experiences via auction either online from July 3-13 or as part of an ESPN Radio 18-hour radiothon this past Wednesday. When combined with the ESPY Celebrity Golf Classic, more than $1.8M was raised for cancer research during ESPYs Week (ESPN).

The money Tiger Woods received from Nike reportedly "fell by as much as 50%" in '10 to about $10M, down from $20M in '09. Woods is expected to "get the same reduced amount" for '11. Nike is said to have penalized Woods "for his indiscretions, reducing his payment for two years as a reponse to his public behavior" (FORTUNE.com, 7/15).

Michael Waltrip Racing on Friday announced that the team website will carry NASCAR.com's TrackPass RaceView coverage of Sunday's Sprint Cup Series Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway free of charge. This will mark the first time a race team site will have hosted the RaceView coverage (MWR).

Foxwoods Resort Casino on Friday announced it will serve as primary sponsor of Inception Motorsports' No. 30 Chevy driven by David Stremme in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Lenox Industrial Tools 301 (Foxwoods Resort Casino).

Capital Window Fund will be an associate sponsor of JTG Daugherty Racing's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series No. 47 Toyota driven by Bobby Labonte in Sunday's race (Capital Window Corp.).

Dunlop has announced that golfer Thomas Aiken has "signed as an official ambassador." Per the deal, Aiken will endorse The Dunlop Collection range of apparel and will sport a Dunlop staff bag on the European PGA Tour (SPORT24.com, 7/15).

"It makes it pretty clear to me that ESPN is not interested in letting the facts stand in the way of their agenda" – Former Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach, on reports that ESPN had suspended Bruce Feldman, who co-wrote Leach's new book "Swing Your Sword" (SIRIUSXMSPORTS.com, 7/15).

"A draft would have a detrimental impact on the growth of the sport in many Latin countries" – Yankees Senior VP/Baseball Operations Mark Newman, on many Latino players being against MLB instituting a worldwide draft (ESPN THE MAGAZINE, 7/25 issue).

L.A. Times NFL reporter Sam Farmer: “Check liquor stores in the vicinity of 280 Park Ave. If there's a run on champagne sales, we know the end is near.”

Author Buzz Bissinger: “ESPN is very dangerous. Everybody in sports terrified of them. Just like hold Murdoch had on Britain with his garbage. But the mighty fall.”

Golfweek’s Sean Martin: “I smell an endorsement deal with Vespa if Ricky Barnes wins this week. Got into field Thursday when Nicolas Colsaerts wrecked a scooter.”

Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg: “If 10,000 gen admission seats can vanish from FedEx, either the renewal rate from last year was abysmal, or the sellout streak is a farce.”

If you see a tweet we won’t want to miss, send it to us at editorial@sportsbusinessdaily.com.

FRIDAY

EPL club Manchester United will unveil its new away uniforms at Niketown in downtown Seattle. ManU D Rio Ferdinand, MF Park Ji-Sung and D Nemanja Vidic will be on hand for the unveiling of the new kit, which will first be worn in a match Wednesday against the MLS Sounders. 

SATURDAY

College football commentator Beano Cook will be presented with the Football Writers Association of America's Bert McGrane Award during the National Football Foundation & College HOF's enshrinement festival in South Bend, Ind.

This spot from Greenpeace, part of its campaign aimed at Nike's and adidas' manufacturing processes, parodies the style and themes of ads from the two apparel makers.

Watch The Clip

$1.05M -- Amount the Univ. of Iowa is paying the Univ. of Louisiana-Monroe to play a Sept. 24 football game at Kinnick Stadium. The amount is $150,000 more than Iowa's previous high payout of $900,000, which went to Arkansas State for an '09 game (HAWKCENTRAL.com, 7/14).