As part of its 10-year stadium naming-rights deal with Sporting KC, Children's Mercy medical center will "open a 22,000-square foot sports medicine and rehabilitation center" at the under-construction U.S. Soccer National Training Center, according to Sam McDowell of the K.C. STAR. Sporting Club CEO Robb Heineman said that the NTC is "currently concluding its design phase" with a grand opening projected for late '17. The Children’s Mercy branch of the NTC will "offer a broad range of sports medicine services for youth athletes of all sports." The rehabilitation wing has "been designed to include therapy pools, basketball goals, batting cages, a turf field and a gait analysis laboratory." In the research space, Children’s Mercy doctors will "work to identify young athletes who are more likely to sustain injuries and create various training programs to prevent them." Children’s Mercy per the agreement will also "provide the care for Sporting KC Academy players, who train at Swope Soccer Village." Sporting Club CRO Jake Reid said that he "first approached Children’s Mercy about the full partnership in late April." Heineman said that the club "bypassed negotiations with other companies to instead work on its deal with Children’s Mercy." Sporting Club co-Owners Cliff Illig and Neal Patterson are "co-founders of Cerner, a healthcare information technology company" in K.C. Cerner and Children's Mercy also will "generate the Sporting Moves program, a plan to prevent childhood obesity among elementary school-aged kids." Heineman: "It’s always been very important to us that it’s not just (acquiring) a name -- it’s about an experience you’re going to provide for the community" (K.C. STAR, 11/20).
PUT THE PAST AWAY: In K.C., Vahe Gregorian writes it is easy in hindsight to "see any number of factors in the making of the watershed win-win partnership announced Thursday that most visibly will entail Sporting Park becoming known as Children’s Mercy Park." Perhaps it ultimately hatched because the foundation of a relationship was "formed over the years between hospital executives with the Cerner-dominated ownership group of Sporting KC." Some hospital execs have been season ticket-holders "going back to the club’s identity as the Wizards." All of this in some way fed into Reid "probing Children’s Mercy about a potential partnership in late April and Sporting ultimately bypassing negotiations with other companies to hone in on this." At play, too, "were the lessons of the past," including the "miserable, rancorous end" in January '13 to Sporting’s affiliation with Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation. Heineman said that the mess that "included a spat over terms of the contract and Livestrong, in fact, terminating the deal stung." Now, Children’s Mercy, which was "ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of 'America’s Best Children’s Hospitals,' is an ally that Sporting can have faith checks every box it could want in terms of excellence, mission, prestige and strong local identity." In turn, the hospital believes that identity will be "enhanced by the deal that includes a 22,000-square foot sports medicine and rehabilitation center at the National Training Center." A logo befitting the partnership is "still to be developed" (K.C. STAR, 11/20).
