MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER club Sporting Kansas City has agreed a new shirt sponsorship deal, just days after terminating its stadium naming rights deal with Livestrong, Lance Armstrong’s cancer charity.
Ivy Funds, a Kansas-based fund manager, has signed a five-year deal and becomes the team’s first ever jersey sponsor. The company is also designated the club’s official investment management partner.
The deal marks a reverse in commercial fortunes for the club as Livestrong did not pay for its naming rights to Sporting Park. Rather, the club agreed to donate $7.5m to the Livestrong charity over a six-year period between 2011 and 2017.
The club ended its relationship with the cancer charity on Tuesday night as the full extent of Lance Armstrong’s career doping history came to light in an interview with US television host Oprah Winfrey.
According to ESPN, Sporting Kansas City will now earn upwards of $2m per year as a result of the shirt sponsorship deal with Ivy Funds.
Robb Heineman, Sporting Kansas City’s chief executive, highlights the locality of Ivy Funds as a key reason for the company’s recruitment.
“Local was always the thing that was going to be most important to us in a jersey sponsor and then innovation,” he said.
“Ivy Funds has proven that they're an innovator in their field. We wanted something that connected to our community in a large way and that's exactly what this relationship is going to allow us to do.”