As if those ubiquitous yellow rubber bracelets weren't enough of a marketing tool, Livestrong, Lance Armstrong's cancer research nonprofit, now can add stadium-naming rights to its name-recognition arsenal.
Inside of the nearly complete new Sporting Kansas City arena on Tuesday, the club and the seven-time Tour de France champion announced a unique deal that will name the team's posh new 18,000-seat digs Livestrong Sporting Park, and give Armstrong's organization a portion of all stadium revenue including ticket and concession sales.
The biker and cancer survivor, who retired earlier this year, and
team president Robb Heineman, told assembled media and VIPs at a press conference in the stadium that the goal
is to raise $8-$10 million for cancer research.
"It's the first-of-its-kind partnership with an athletic venue that's
core mission is social change," Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman said. "And for
us, it's just humbling to be a small part of it."
As part of the unusual deal, Sporting Kansas City is forgoing the
traditional sports team route of selling stadium-naming rights. Team
president Robb Heineman said he's fully aware that the club is turning
its back on what he estimated could have been a $2.5-$3 million
arrangement with a corporate name. But, he said, the team never
considered another name.
"We weren't evaluating it up against XYZ Company. It just never really
came down to that," he said, adding that SKC and Livestrong had been working on the deal for about eight months.
"I think everybody's natural reaction is that this is crazy," he said,
following the press conference. "And that's OK. But I think they aren't
sort of inside our heads and what we're really thinking we want to do
with this organization in the community."
Ulman said that although the idea of using gifting naming rights to a
nonprofit is a novel one, he predicts others will follow SKC's lead. "My guess is that in the nonprofit community, this will catch on," Ulman
said. "My hypothesis is that within 24 months, you'll see somebody,
somewhere in the world, do something similar."
The $180 million stadium will be completed this spring, forcing SKC
to open the MLS season with a nearly three-month road stand, before
opening on June 9 against the Chicago Fire.
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I think most people will shorten it to "Livestrong Park", which doesn't sound so bad. And even though I think this is a PR hail mary, it's really hard to spin this into a negative turn of events. Proceeds funding cancer research -- even if they're marginally successful, they will have this halo effect from this partnership. Kinda smart, I think.
With missions on two opposite ends of the spectrum (buckets of fried chicken versus cycling 12 miles a day...)
It is not an attractive name, and it will be talked about forever... Just another thing to make us look so desperate to be hooked up to someone great, that we'll fall for and take anything... Lance Armstrong won't even be around here to suffer through it.
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