Sporting KC has signed a new 10-year partnership with Children’s Mercy K.C. that will give the pediatric medical center naming rights to its soccer-specific stadium. Currently Sporting Park, the club’s stadium will now be known as Children’s Mercy Park. The medical center also will have naming rights to the club’s training center and other such facilities at Swope Soccer Village. Sporting KC declined to comment on financial terms, but a source familiar with the deal said it compares favorably to other MLS stadium naming-rights deals, which typically fall in the $1.5-2.5M annual average value ranges. Children’s Mercy also will be the official healthcare and sports medicine partner of the National Training Center, which will break ground in K.C. in the spring. Sporting KC had been working toward a naming-rights deal since '13, when it mutually agreed to terminate an existing deal with Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong foundation. Sporting KC CFO Jake Reid said that the club had been heavily focused on finding the right partner to do such a deal for quite some time and has held discussions with a host of different companies. However, it wanted to work with a local company. With the club's current healthcare partner deal set to expire at the end of the year, Reid said the club approached current sponsor Providence Medical Center and let them know about their high hopes for the category. Providence told the club it did not feel it made sense for its business right now, and the club started discussions with Children’s Mercy, whose charitable foundation has had a long-standing relationship with the club. “We’ve been really proud of Sporting Park, but it has been missing a proper name,” said Sporting KC CEO Robb Heineman. “To be able to partner with a local brand that is very important to this area and is iconic to Kansas City, it’s absolutely great. We’re very excited for the ways we can work together going forward.”
