Adidas will close its only company-owned sportswear factory in China later this year to streamline manufacturing, a company spokeswoman said.

Cheung said China remained a key market for sourcing goods forAdidas with more than 300 supplier partners in the country.

The Suzhou-based Adidas factory employs about 160 workers who were notified of the closure a few months ago and who will receive a benefits package, Cheung said.

The sports apparel industry is becoming increasingly competitive amid China’s slowing economy, with Adidas, Nike Inc and Converse competing against up-and-coming Chinese companies such as Li Ning Co Ltd, ANTA Sports Products Ltd, 361 Degrees International and China Dongxiang (Group) Co Ltd. {jcomments on}

Baseball and softball officials hope to formalise their plans to make a joint bid for Olympic reinstatement by the end of the month.

The International Baseball Federation says it hopes to finalise a memorandum of understanding with the International Softball Federation at a meeting in Rotterdam on March 17 and then submit it to the International Olympic Committee.

Baseball and softball are competing with karate, site roller sports, sale sports climbing, squash, wakeboard and wushu for one spot on the 2020 program.

The IOC will hold its vote in September 2013.

The IOC voted in 2005 to remove baseball and softball from the Olympic program after the 2008 Beijing Games.

As separate bids, the two sports both failed to return for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

by Ismail Uddin

Scottish Premier League (SPL) soccer side St Mirren Football Club, who currently find themselves just one place off the bottom of the table, have been given a boost after agreeing a new kit deal and sponsorship with sports retail company JD Sports.

The new deal will see one of JD’s exclusive fashion brand, Carbrini Sportswear, emblazoned on the kit of the Scottish club for the next three years from the beginning of next season. Carbrini will provide the club with a new design which will see the team return to a fully black and white striped kit with no panel on the back.

Richard Atkinson, St Mirren director, spoke of the deal: “It is great to be able to do a deal with a company that can provide the club both the individual attention in a bespoke designed kit as well as the multi-site retail reach of a major British owned and based business. I am personally very excited about the way in which the club and the JD Sports relationship could develop over the coming years”

Guy Walker of JD Sports added: “This is a great deal for both St Mirren Football Club and JD Sports. We are very much looking forward to developing our relationship with the fans and the club as well as bringing to them both kits that really reflect the historic colours, designs and traditions of St Mirren Football Club.”

Orlando Silva will continue in his role as Brazil’s Sports Minister under the new President-elect Dilma Rousseff.

Rousseff, who will begin his position in the New Year, has dropped plans to set-up a separate Ministry to exclusively oversee preparations for Rio 2016. Silva, 39, is seen as a key figure in Brazil’s successful bids to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup as well as the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Silva, will have a vital role to play in Rousseff’s new Government after being appointed as Sports Minister in March 2006. Silva earlier in the week played down reports that new government cuts to funding, would impact upon the quality and speed of the relevant infrastructure projects ahead of the World Cup in four years.

There are increasing concerns about Brazil’s preparations which were criticised publicly last week by FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who warned that they must step-up the pace of construction work.

The Dutch Olympic Committee has chosen London’s Alexandra Palace to host the famous Heineken House for the duration of the London 2012 Games.

The landmark will be transformed into a giant beer hall acting as a hospitality centre for athletes, officials and VIP officials. Situated in north London the venue will also be open to the general public.

Holland have followed in the footsteps of France, Germany and Brazil who have all secured hospitality areas around London. France have an agreement with Old Billingsgate, Germany with the Museum of London Docklands and Brazil with Somerset House.

Managing Director of the Netherlands Olympic Committee, Gerald Dielessen said: “Heineken has been the organiser of Heineken Holland House since Barcelona 1992, for which we are enormously grateful.

“The national house has grown into an extremely popular Olympic hotspot – with the help of many others. 

“This success is certain to be repeated during London 2012, especially now that it is so close to home. 

“The city is expected to attract tens of thousands of Dutch visitors a day, both with and without tickets to the events.”

Figures released yesterday will bring cheer to the UK Horse Racing industry as they show a significant 3.6% increase in racecourse attendances to date in 2010, pills compared with 2009. The figures are made all the more impressive by the fact that a number of high profile fixtures were lost in January due to the icy weather. Despite the drop in race meetings, generic the average daily attendance has grown from 4, for sale 351 to 4,513 year on year.

These figures will be particularly welcomed by the industry in the current economic climate when other major sports continue to struggle with declining gate receipts. The increase in attendances has been consistent over the past nine months but April (+7.3%) and July (+10.1%) were particularly strong.

Another feature of the figures is the growing success of racing’s main showcase meetings, the Cheltenham Festival, the Aintree John Smith’s Grand National, the Ivestec Epsom Derby, Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood, York Ebor Festival and the Doncaster Ladbrokes St Leger Festival. At each of these major events, 2010 crowd numbers exceeded the previous year’s attendances.

However, racing’s success story hasn’t just been achieved around the Festival meetings. Three racecourses, York, Newbury and Chester, have reported record numbers of visitors attending Saturday fixtures during the summer. In addition, a Yorkshire Summer Racing Festival involving nine courses in the county attracted a massive combined crowd of 101,705. This is in addition to strong performances by many other racecourses, such as Thirsk, who saw attendances up 4.2% against 2009 and Carlisle where the Summer Family Festival in July saw 11,000 people flocking to the course, an increase of 3,000 on their previous best.

Along with competitive racing, many courses have been taking the opportunity in 2010 to broaden the entertainment on offer, hosting concerts and themed days to draw in the crowds. In August, a concert by the Irish boy band Westlife sold out Newbury Racecourse to cap an excellent day’s racing.

Earlier, in April, the industry, under its Racing for Change banner, initiated the first ever ‘week of free racing’ with nine courses, including Ascot and Goodwood, allowing the public in at no cost. This promotion proved highly successful, attracting an extra 40,000 customers through the gates (compared to the previous year’s attendances). Research showed that over 60% of these racegoers were new to the sport.

Many of the 60 courses in Great Britain have also been actively marketing their fixtures to a broader audience and working hard to make sure that visitors have a memorable leisure experience. The Racing for Change project places particular emphasis on demystifying the sport for novice racegoers and promoting the human and equine stars more effectively, both at the tracks and through the media.

Stephen Atkin, Chief Executive of the Racecourse Association commented, “This is a fantastic performance by British racecourses given the financial strain that many people have found themselves in recently and the fact that we are in a World Cup year. It goes to prove that racing remains a highly popular and attractive day out, and that horseracing offers an exciting and innovative experience for all the family.”

Bookmaker William Hill has announced it is to start up a new telephone betting operation offshore in Gibraltar.

It said the move was in response to offshore telebetting operators and betting exchanges which “enjoy tax advantages”.

Companies based offshore do not have to pay the Horseracing Betting Levy, ampoule which UK-based bookmakers have to pay in order to take bets on British races.

As part of the move, drugs a call centre in Leeds will be closed, and another in Sheffield will be run by outsourcer Vertex.

William Hill chief executive Ralph Topping said: “This significant change to our telephone business is a response to the challenge of competing with betting exchanges and offshore telebetting operators, all of whom have benefited from significant cost and tax advantages over UK bookmakers.

“This has made it impossible for our existing business to compete profitably from the UK.”