A "win-win" partnership

Sporting KC's naming-rights deal with Children's Mercy is a win-win

In hindsight, it’s easy 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.

After all, longtime Children’s Mercy president and CEO Randall O’Donnell said, the two institutions in some ways “evolved together.”

Read more via Kansas City Star

Children's Mercy, Sporting KC team up for naming rights, plus community and youth health programs

Two major players in metro Kansas City are teaming up: Children’s Mercy Kansas City and Sporting Kansas City announced a long-term partnership to promote health and fitness among schoolchildren and provide specialized sports medicine to youth athletes, according to a news release from Children’s Mercy.

Along with this partnership, Sporting KC’s stadium will be renamed Children’s Mercy Park.

Kevin Latz, M.D. of Orthopedic Surgery, said sports related injuries are at an all-time high amongst youth and adolescent athletes.

"[The facility] will serve not only soccer athletes but also athletes of all sports including baseball and basketball and football and track," Latz said.

See the complete story via KSHB-TV

Kansas City’s Major League Soccer franchise is joining forces with Children’s Mercy Hospital

In a 10-year partnership announced Thursday, Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas, will be renamed Children’s Mercy Park starting Jan. 1.

Goalkeeper Tim Melia, just named the league’s comeback player of the year, was on hand for the announcement with some children who have comeback stories of their own.

“This is such a noble cause and just getting the opportunity to come out here and hang out with these kids, it puts a lot of things in perspective,” Melia said.

The new National Training Center, which breaks ground in the spring, will also focus on youth sports medicine. Children’s Mercy Hospital will build a rehabilitation center for young athletes.

Doctors said they’re seeing more injuries among young athletes, with 2 million reported among high school students nationwide. Knee ligament and cartilage injuries are common. Brain injuries are also becoming a growing concern.

“The injury of a concussion to an adolescent or a teenager is very different than a traumatic brain injury to you and I,” said Dr. Kevin Latz of Children’s Mercy Hospital.

See the complete story via KMBC-TV