American Major League Soccer franchise Sporting Kansas City has agreed a multi-faceted partnership with locally-based pediatric medical centre Children’s Mercy.
The 10-year deal grants Children’s Mercy exclusive naming rights to the club’s Sporting Park home stadium, which will henceforth be known as Children’s Mercy Park. The deal becomes effective on January 1 and will run until the end of the 2025 MLS season.
Sporting KC has been without a stadium naming rights partner since it severed its ties with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong’s charitable foundation Livestrong in January 2013.
“We always wanted to make sure that we had an iconic name on the building,” Sporting KC chief executive Robb Heineman told the Kansas City Star newspaper. “Obviously, the previous name we had didn’t fulfil all the expectations we had for their role. We wanted to make sure this time we had someone that fit perfectly.”
Children’s Mercy will work closely with the club on a number of other initiatives.
A state-of-the-art sports medicine and rehabilitation centre will be opened next spring at Kansas City’s National Training Center, of which Children’s Mercy has been named the official healthcare and sports medicine partner. The new centre will treat young athletes across all sports.
It will also become involved with the club’s Victory Project, which helps sick children in the area obtain the support and resources they need. Further programmes will be introduced to educate elementary school students on the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
In addition, Children’s Mercy will be on hand to provide its services at Sporting KC’s training camps and tournaments at the club’s Swope Soccer Village training facility. As well as securing naming rights to the club’s stadium, Children’s Mercy has agreed a similar deal with the Swope Soccer Village.
“The education of athletes, coaches and parents through training and curriculum has always been an extremely important topic for me,” Peter Vermes, Sporting KC manager, said. “There is a great need for not only facilities, but also programming around this in the community.
“Partnering with Children’s Mercy and working together to serve the youth in this capacity will no doubt decrease injuries in all sports.”