Sounders FC Center at Longacres will now be known as Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse, the team announced on Thursday. The agreement is essentially an extension of Providence’s shirt sponsorship that drew intense fan backlash when it was first announced in 2023.
The original sponsorship agreement was for 10 years and was reportedly worth in the “high seven-figures” and would reach eight figures by the end of the deal, according to Sports Business Journal. It was not immediately clear if the naming rights actually provide new money or if they were always part of the original agreement. SBJ also reported that the viewing deck and currently under-construction atrium will eventually provide new revenue streams as well.
In addition to the naming rights, Providence is partnering with the Sounders for several other initiatives that include:
- Swedish physicians serving as the club’s team doctors, working alongside the sports medicine staff.
- Providence launching a mental-health program in Renton schools. All 15,000 Renton School District students already have access to the program, with 228 individual students engaging in about 1,200 sessions in the first year, according to the team’s press release.
Although the Sounders are dropping “Longacres” from the formal name of the facility, the inclusion of “clubhouse” is supposed to pay homage to the site’s racecourse history while also alluding to a commitment to the community.
Jeremiah Oshan
Along those lines, the Sounders have now formalized how all fans can access the facility, welcoming them to watch training two days a month. Season-ticket members can sign up for an “elevated” experience on those days. The facility will also be open to field trips and “free play” events for local youth.
“Working with Providence, we want the name of our new home to reflect key elements of this partnership, recognizing that Sounders FC is both a soccer club and a community institution,” Sounders majority owner Adrian Hanauer said in a team release. “We’re proud of the team’s legacy of success on the field and the performance advantages Providence’s expertise brings to those efforts. We’re equally proud of being a club that is dedicated to bettering the community it serves. The Clubhouse symbolizes both of those philosophical pillars.”
Jeremiah Oshan
Providence’s sponsorship has been met with a good deal of blowback, though.
Among the groups who spoke out against the sponsorship were the Alliance Council and ECS, the latter of whom continued to display protest signs in the Brougham End throughout the season.
The most common complaint from fans was that the Catholic-operated, not-for-profit health system did not share the values espoused by the club when it came to reproductive rights or LGBTQ health. Providence was also embroiled in a controversy around over-charging low-income patients, for which it was recently forced to pay nearly $160 million in refunds and debt relief to Washington residents.
