Chinese league rebounds after SARS halts schedule

Nearly 200,000 fans turned out to see six matches in China's National Football League when play resumed July 2 after a 12-week shutdown because of SARS. The average attendance after the layoff was up about 50 percent from the 152,500 fans present at the seven games played in the most recent round three months ago. Chinese champion Dalian Shide drew 50,000 spectators for its game.

SHIRT HAPPY: David Beckham has not played a game for Real Madrid yet, but the Spanish club sold 8,000 Adidas replica shirts with the former Manchester United star's name on the back on the first day of sales. At a whopping retail price of almost $90, that's more than $700,000. The arrival of Beckham marks the third year in a row that Real has added a foreign superstar to the squad. Beckham's shirt sales topped the figure for Brazilian star Ronaldo, whose replica sold 2,000 units on the first day after he joined Real from Inter Milan. In 2001, a mere 300 shirts with French World Cup hero Zinedine Zidane's name and number were sold on the first day after he joined from Juventus.

SCOOTER CONNECTION: The Jordan Grand Prix team of Formula One has concluded an agreement with Piaggio to become the team's official scooter supplier for the 2003 season. The deal was secured by the British team's licensing agency, Copyright Promotions Licensing Group. Piaggio won't write a check but will provide the Jordan team with six special-edition Piaggio NRG MC3 scooters; 400 of the scooters will be made available in U.K. showrooms in July.

REDUCED LOAD: Italian soccer club Lazio is trimming its debt. The club reported net debt of $77 million as of May 31, down from $97 million on March 31 and $155 million as of June 30, 2002. The Lazio board has called for an extraordinary general meeting Nov. 19 to OK raising an additional $28.3 million, to be reserved for paying personnel.

— Jay Stuart