Louisville has new $160M deal with Adidas, Tom Jurich tells boosters

Jeff Greer
Courier Journal

The University of Louisville has a new sponsorship contract with Adidas, athletics director Tom Jurich told administrators and boosters at a dinner Thursday night.

Jurich told the crowd the deal is worth $160 million over 10 years, said Joey Wagner, the in-game emcee for Louisville men's basketball and football who was on hand at Thursday's event.

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The school also announced plans for a Friday morning press conference.

"(Jurich) will make a major announcement" at the press conference, U of L's news release said.

The deal comes at a time when Louisville was nearing the end of its contract with Adidas. That agreement ran through this coming school year, with a one-year extension option, and was worth $39 million over five years.

The new contract puts U of L near the top of collegiate athletics in sponsorship deals.

UCLA broke from Adidas and inked a 15-year, $280-million contract with Under Armour last year, giving the Bruins the No. 1 sponsorship deal in Division I sports.

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That deal didn't faze Jurich, who said last spring that U of L was loyal to Adidas because of its long-standing relationship with the company. He told the Courier-Journal that U of L would be in "very, very good, strong position" when it was time for the school to renegotiate its own contract with Adidas. 

"We want to continue to grow our program, not to look at what other people are going to do for you," Jurich said last May. "Let’s take care of our programs here. Much like getting us into the ACC, my goal was to build our program first so nobody could break it down. If we did that, the apparel companies would want us, and we've done that."