MUSC Health, Charleston Battery announce naming rights for stadium
August 3, 2015
CHARLESTON, SC – MUSC Health and the Charleston Battery expand their ongoing relationship with the award of naming rights to the team’s stadium through the end of the decade.
MUSC Health has a significant history with the Charleston Battery providing onsite Sports Medicine services for players since 2008. MUSC Health will continue as the club’s sole sports medicine provider and commitment to the community. The Battery will play its home matches at MUSC Health Stadium through the end of the decade. The name change takes effect immediately, with the Battery versus Montreal match on August 1, 2015.
“We are absolutely thrilled to expand our partnership with MUSC Health and their Sports Medicine team,” said Andrew Bell, Battery president. “They provide the superb health coverage for our athletes and literally keep us in the game. For us to play in MUSC Health Stadium really underscores the depth of the partnership. We’re looking forward with great pride to continuing to offer the very best product we can both on and off the field.”
MUSC Health Stadium opened in 1999 as the first privately financed, soccer-specific stadium in North America. During the first 15 years of its existence the stadium’s naming rights were owned by Blackbaud Inc., who will continue to be a major partner with the Battery. In addition to professional soccer matches, MUSC Health Stadium will host significant events including the Special Olympics, the Mount Pleasant Rotary Soccer Classic, the Clash of the Carolinas, plus high school and college soccer matches.
“MUSC Health has been providing Sports Medicine care for the Charleston Battery for the past eight seasons, and we are all very excited about expanding our relationship through the end of the decade while having one of the top USL franchises playing in MUSC Health Stadium,” said Michael Barr, MUSC Health Sports Medicine Program manager. “Our relationship with the Charleston Battery allows us to expand our vision and primary goal of keeping athletes of all ages safe on the playing field.”
“MUSC Health and the Sports Medicine program are delighted and inspired as we forge a deeper relationship with the Charleston Battery in promoting better health throughout our community,” said Shane Woolf, M.D., chief of the MUSC Health Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Service. “Our role with the team is and will continue to be one in which we deliver the highest quality medical care to the elite athletes of one South Carolina’s top and most respected professional teams. Moving forward, we are eager to work together to promote youth sports injury prevention, general health education, and community wellness.”
About Charleston Battery
Founded in 1993, the Charleston Battery is one of the most respected, successful and storied professional soccer clubs in the United States. It is the nation’s oldest professional club when measured by continuous operation (a distinction shared with its historic rivals, the Richmond Kickers), winning four championships along the way. In addition to producing a string of players and coaches who went on to compete at higher levels in the sport, club alumni who have settled in the Lowcountry continue to contribute soccer expertise to new generations of athletes. The Battery competes in USL, the largest and strongest lower-division soccer league in North America. Battery teams have reached the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals or beyond six times, and the 2008 squad was the tournament runner-up – a feat no lower-division club has matched in the years since.
About MUSC Health
Founded in 1824 in Charleston, The Medical University of South Carolina is the oldest medical school in the South. Today, MUSC continues the tradition of excellence in education, research, and patient care. MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and residents, and has nearly 13,000 employees, including approximately 1,500 faculty members. As the largest non-federal employer in Charleston, the university and its affiliates have collective annual budgets in excess of $1.7 billion. MUSC operates a 750-bed medical center, which includes a nationally recognized Children’s Hospital, the Ashley River Tower (cardiovascular, digestive disease, and surgical oncology), Hollings Cancer Center (one of 66 National Cancer Institute designated centers) Level I Trauma Center and Institute of Psychiatry. For more information on academic information or clinical services, visit www.MUSC.edu. For more information on hospital patient services, visit www.MUSChealth.org.
