Columbus Crew SC‘s upcoming training facility will be known as OhioHealth Performance Center, as naming rights are included in a partnership between the club and OhioHealth.
In addition, OhioHealth becomes a “Founding Partner” ahead of the opening of the Crew’s new, downtown stadium set to open in July 2021, and will continue to be the club’s Official Healthcare Provider.
The OhioHealth Performance Center will be located on the site of MAPFRE Stadium (which opened in 1999), and will be home to the Crew headquarters, player training grounds, and a new community sports park.
“We are proud to announce the continued partnership and now the historic naming rights to the OhioHealth Performance Center as both the Club and OhioHealth look to take Columbus Crew SC to new heights,” said Crew SC Executive Vice President & Chief Business Officer Steve Lyons. “On behalf of the Haslam and Edwards Families, Crew SC President/GM Tim Bezbatchenko and the entire Crew SC organization, we are thrilled to partner with a leader in the community like OhioHealth, as our official healthcare provider. We are aligned in our goals of unifying and giving back to our community while representing Columbus with great pride in all that we do. We look forward to many more years together as partners and eagerly await the opening of our new performance center.”
“What a time to be a Columbus Crew SC fan, and OhioHealth is one of the biggest,” Steve Markovich, MD, President and CEO, OhioHealth said. “We are proud to continue our partnership with this wonderful sports organization through a multi-year agreement, elevating our longstanding partnership with great excitement about the future. Beyond that partnership, that now spans nearly 25 years, the new OhioHealth Performance Center will highlight what OhioHealth does best; health, wellness, connecting businesses and neighborhoods through medical expertise and accessibility. To do all of this side-by-side with a team that’s so important to central Ohio and beyond, gives us great pride, and we couldn’t be more excited.”
Set to open in the summer of 2021, the OhioHealth Performance Center will feature a 42,000 square foot MLS training facility for all Crew soccer operations, including First team and Academy. A First Team locker room and film room will be built as well as additional player and performance areas player lounge, sleep/recovery room, weight room, training room and hydrotherapy area. A full-service kitchen and dining area, used by Crew soccer operations staff, First Team and Academy is set to be built as well as specific locker rooms, lounges, training and equipment rooms for the Crew SC Academy. A media room and in-house production room are also set to be built as part of this construction. Design of the construction is being led by local firm Columbus Architectural Studio and supported by local firms Moody Nolan and MKSK, with construction led by local firm Corna-Kokosing.
The OhioHealth Performance Center will also feature two First Team natural grass fields, supported by hydronic heating and SubAir systems; one natural grass field and artificial turf for Academy use; and one seasonal bubble over the stadium field.
Renderings courtesy Columbus Crew SC.
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