UW-Madison changes clothes

The brand with the three stripes is taking over the responsibility of keeping University of Wisconsin-Madison’s sports teams in clothes.

The UW Board of Regents approved a five-year, $8.3 million apparel contract with Adidas in June.  In addition to providing athletic apparel for the school’s 23 sports teams, bonuses ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 will be distributed to the university based on how teams perform.

Reebok held the previous contract which expired on July 31.  Student protests over Reebok’s links to overseas sweatshops were among the reasons for the university's decision to look elsewhere for apparel contracts.

New contract provisions allow the university to study company records to make sure Adidas employees are not working in sweatshop conditions.  Adidas will provide the university with names and locations of all its factories making Badger apparel and university inspectors will be allowed to check each factory.

The modified deal will allow Atlanta-based Collegiate Licensing Co. to get all royalties in the Adidas contract that are above the rate it gets in other university licensing deals.  The new deal also allows the university to add restrictions on companies that want to license its products.  This provision is primarily designed to let the university require those companies to adhere to certain labor standards.

The UW Board of Regents is also hard at work planning the renovation of Camp Randall.  Built in 1917, Camp Randall is one of the nation’s oldest college stadiums.  The last renovation came in 1966 when an upper deck was installed.

Work on the proposed $99.7 million three-stage project could begin in February after contract bids are settled next month.

Also in October, the UW Athletic Department will introduce its plan to lease 93 proposed private suites that will be added to the east side of the stadium on three levels.  Each suite could bring in up to $90,000 annually.  A lease cost of $35,000 would bring in $3.25 million and preferential seating is expected to raise $3.3 million.

That money will be used to fund part of the renovation project.  State money will account for $10 million for infrastructure and maintenance costs, while private donations will make up the bulk of the $72.6 million in university funding.

The first stage of the project is renovation of the stadium’s antiquated plumbing, electrical and sound systems. The entire renovation project is slated for completion in 2004.

Material from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal were used in this story.