January 24 – MLS side Seattle Sounders, winners of the Concacaf Champions League last season, have agreed a new sponsorship with western-US based health provider Providence.
The 10-year agreement will see the Providence logo on the front of all Sounders match shirts and kit , beginning this season. Sounders FC development teams, from the club’s Discovery Program squads to the MLS NEXT sides, will also wear Providence-badged shirts.
Providence takes over from the shirt front from Zulily (2019-2022).
At the centre of the activation of the sponsorship is a focus on “driving meaningful impact in the area of youth mental health and wellness.”
Arpan Waghray, chief executive, Institute for Mental Health and Wellness, said: “There is a mental health crisis in this country with millions of people suffering and young people being especially impacted since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020…
Providence and Seattle Sounders FC have been looking for ways to partner to improve the health of the community. One area where we share common urgency is the mental health crisis among young people. Passion for sports like soccer is often a powerful way to join people together in a common cause.”
The sponsorship was announced in Renton at the Sounders FC Center at Longacres, the club’s new training facility set to open in 2024. The partners made a commitment to work with local schools “to develop, implement and provide support for a variety of programming and services focused on concrete ways to improve mental health for students.”
Providence Swedish becomes the Official Medical Services Provider and Official Healthcare Partner of the club and will provide team doctors.
“From our earliest conversations with Providence, this partnership was always about shared values, especially our combined organizational commitment to our region’s youth and making communities healthier places to live,” said Sounders FC Majority Owner Adrian Hanauer.
While the sponsorship is based on local roots and activation, the profile will be global next month with the Sounders being the first MLS club to compete at the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco.
No value was given for the sponsorship.
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