Sporting Kansas City is a finalist for Sports Team of the Year and LIVESTRONG Sporting Park is one of four venues up for “Sports Facility of the Year” as Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily unveiled their nominees today for the 2012 Sports Business Awards.
“It is a great honor to be nominated for two Sports Business Awards, for our team and stadium,” Sporting Club CEO Robb Heineman said. “When we built LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, we wanted fan experience to be the focal point and that has also carried over to the players who certainly excel both on and off the field. It is tremendous to be considered for these awards by the Sports Business Journal/Daily for KansasCity and for Major League Soccer.”
Sporting Kansas City, who finished in first place in the Eastern Conference in 2011 and have recorded two straight victories to start the 2012 season, are the onlyMajor League Soccer club nominated for an award. Also chosen as finalists in the Sports Team of the Year category are the Boston Bruins (NHL), Dayton Dragons (Minor League Baseball), Stewart-Haas Racing (NASCAR) and the TexasRangers (MLB).
The club’s home field LIVESTRONG Sporting Park also garnered recognition with its consideration for Sports Facility of the Year. The $200+ million venue, opened in June 2011, has already hosted the U.S. Men’s and Women’s National Teams, along with the English Premier League’s Newcastle United FC and Mexico’s Club Deportivo Guadalajara. The state-of-the-art stadium was selected to host the group stage of the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup and willserve as the site for the semifinals and championship matches of the CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament later this month. Tickets are still available.
Other nominees for Sports Facility of the Year include the site of the 2012 NBA All-Star Game (Amway Center) and 2013 Super Bowl (Mercedes Benz Superdome), as well as Major League Baseball spring training destination Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.
The nominees in each of the 15 categories were selected after extensive research and review by the editorial staffs of Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily. The awards recognize outstanding achievements in sports business from March 1, 2011 to February 29, 2012.
The winners will be announced live at the Sports Business Awards ceremony, to be held in New York City on May 23.
