COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Columbus Crew SC today announced in a special press conference that it has partnered with Columbus-based OhioHealth in a historic partnership that will see the Club’s future training facility – set to open in 2021 – become known as the OhioHealth Performance Center. A partner of Columbus Crew SC since 1997, OhioHealth becomes the first organization to announce its commitment to the new era of Crew SC. OhioHealth becomes a “Founding Partner” ahead of the opening of the Club’s new downtown stadium, set for July 2021, and will continue to be the Club’s Official Healthcare Provider.
The OhioHealth Performance Center will be located on the team’s existing stadium site (which opened in 1999), and will be home to the Crew headquarters, player training grounds, and adjacent to a new City of Columbus 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 continue 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 the OhioHealth Performance Center.”
MEDIA ASSETS: For newly released renderings of the OhioHealth Performance Center, including a special fly-through video, as well as logos, please see the following link (courtesy Columbus Crew SC): https://crew.sc/2wPiBJr
“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.”
Based in Columbus, Ohio, OhioHealth has been recognized as one of the top five large health systems in America by Truven Health Analytics, an honor it has received six times. In addition to being the second largest employer in central Ohio, OhioHealth has also recognized by Fortune as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” 13 years in a row, 2007–2019.
Scheduled to open in the summer of 2021, the OhioHealth Performance Center will feature a dynamic 42,000 square-foot, first-in-class cutting-edge MLS training facility for all Crew soccer operations, including First Team and Academy. The OhioHealth Performance Center will feature a First Team locker room and film room, as well as additional player and performance areas, a 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 also included, as well as specific locker rooms, lounges, training and equipment rooms for the Crew SC Academy. The OhioHealth Performance Center will also have a state-of-the-art media room and in-house production room. Design of the project is being led by local firm Columbus Architectural Studio with support from 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 a seasonal bubble over the stadium field.
The Black & Gold begin the 2020 MLS regular season at MAPFRE Stadium against New York City FC, on Sunday, March 1 at 12:30 p.m. ET. Tickets to all matches on the Crew SC home schedule are available now online at ColumbusCrewSC.com or via phone.
ABOUT COLUMBUS CREW SC
Columbus Crew SC (Soccer Club) is the first club in Major League Soccer. Crew SC is operated by The Edwards Family and The Haslam Family. The Black & Gold won their first MLS Cup championship in 2008 and also won the 2002 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup as well as MLS Supporters’ Shield titles in 2004, 2008 and 2009. The 2020 campaign is the Crew’s 25th season in MLS and the 21st season at historic MAPFRE Stadium -- the first soccer-specific stadium in the United States.
Website: ColumbusCrewSC.com | Twitter: @ColumbusCrewSC | Instagram: @ColumbusCrewSC | Hashtag: #Crew96 | Facebook.com/columbuscrewsc | Snapchat: ColumbusCrewSC | Stadium: MAPFRE Stadium | Training Facility: Crew SC Training Center at Obetz | Future Training Facility (2021): OhioHealth Performance Center | New, downtown stadium coming July 2021.
ABOUT OHIOHEALTH
OhioHealth is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, charitable, healthcare outreach of the United Methodist Church. Based in Columbus, Ohio, serving its communities since 1891, OhioHealth is a family of 30,000 associates, physicians and volunteers, and a system of 12 hospitals and more than 200 ambulatory sites, hospice, home health, medical equipment and other health services spanning a 47-county area. OhioHealth hospitals include OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, OhioHealth Doctors Hospital, OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital, OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital, OhioHealth Hardin Memorial Hospital, OhioHealth Marion General Hospital, OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital, OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital, OhioHealth Shelby Hospital, OhioHealth Grove City Methodist Hospital and OhioHealth Berger Hospital. OhioHealth.com.