ZACK GREINKE HAS A FRACTURED RIB FROM PLAYING PICKUP BASKETBALL. | B4

Sports Daily

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The brochure sat on Livestrong CEO Doug Ul-man’s desk for weeks. But when he finally took itseriously, he found that his boss — champion cy-clist Lance Armstrong — was even more luke-warm about the idea than he was.

Armstrong thought the concept of naming astadium after his nonprofit organization — whichis exactly what some Major League Soccer teamin Kansas City was pitching to them — sounded,you know, a little bit crazy. After all, he isn’t ex-actly what you would call a “soccer guy.”

“You mean that sport where they fall down, rollaround and act like they’re (injured),” Armstrongwould joke when broached about the idea.

But Armstrong’s tune changed, much the wayUlman’s did, when he heard the particulars. Live-strong wouldn’t have to pay a dime to plaster itsname all over a state-of-the-art, $200 million soc-cer complex in Kansas City, Kan. And, oh yes, theclub’s owners were willing to donate a portion of

LIVESTRONG SPORTING PARK | New soccer stadium gets an identity

A CHARITY PITCH

CHRIS OBERHOLTZ | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

The construction is still ongoing, but that didn’t stop Sporting KC from christening its new $200 million stadium, Livestrong Sporting Park.

CHRIS OBERHOLTZ | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Champion cyclist Lance Armstrong was intown on Tuesday as Sporting KC announcedits deal with the Livestrong foundation.

Sporting KC names its new homeafter cyclist Lance Armstrong’spopular cancer foundation.

By TEREZ A. PAYLORThe Kansas City Star

SEE STADIUM | B5

The Kansas women’s basketball teamhit the magic 20-victory mark Tuesdaywith a 71-45 victory over Colorado inthe opening round of the Big 12women’s tournament at Municipal Au-ditorium.

No. 21 is going to be a whole lottougher.

The eighth-seeded Jayhawks, 20-11,will face top-seeded Baylor, 28-2 and

the No. 3 team in the nation, today.None of the Jayhawks has forgotten theembarrassment of their 76-37 loss to theBears on Jan. 19 in Lawrence. It tied forthe fourth-worst loss in program his-tory.

“We’re ready for this game,” said Kan-sas’ All-Big 12 forward Carolyn Davis,who scored 16 against Colorado despiteplaying just 29 minutes because of foultrouble. “The first game (against Bay-lor), we don’t think we competed ourbest. We didn’t execute or do any of thethings we planned to do.”

The Jayhawks can’t deny they were ALLISON LONG | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Aishah Sutherland (top) and the Jayhawks had little trouble shutting down Colorado in the first round of the Big 12 tournament.

Jayhawks buffed upKansas women dispatchColorado 71-45 in first roundof tournament, prepare forrematch with Baylor today.

By RANDY COVITZThe Kansas City Star

BIG 12 WOMEN’S TOURNAMENTFIRST ROUND TUESDAYKansas 71, Colorado 45 Iowa State 69, Nebraska 61Texas 79, Missouri 66Texas Tech 75, Oklahoma State 52

QUARTERFINALS TODAYKansas vs. Baylor, 11 a.m. Iowa State vs. K-State, 1:30 p.m. Texas vs. Texas A&M, 5 p.m. Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma, 7:30 p.m.

More on Tuesday’s games and previews for today’s games | B6-7

❙ Go to KansasCity.com for photos, plus updates from today’s games.

SEE KANSAS | B7

MEN’S TOURNAMENTA special section takes a look atthe past and previews the last12-team tournament. | Section CC

The day has ended, and nowDaShawn Harden can come up forair.

The lights are low inside this up-stairs bedroom as she thumbsthrough her BlackBerry and tunesinto a marathon of MTV reality-show programming — two prescrip-tions perfect for pacifying the wearyteenage brain.

“ ’Cause we have games all thetime and practice,” DaShawn says ina bored monotone while curling upon a futon. “Like, this is like my firsttime being able to watch TV in awhile.”

Thank goodness for text messag-ing and “Teen Mom 2,” because to-night DaShawn, a senior point guardfor the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints,gets to turn off the complex 18-year-old world that she’s still trying to fig-ure out.

She has been the constant in Aqui-nas’ 22-0 season. Early this season,when Aquinas lost a huge lead againstShawnee Mission West, DaShawntook over with twisting, turning as-sists and fast-break layups. She fin-ished with a career-high 30 points.

“She’s a great teammate,” Aquinassenior center Katie Brown says. “I’mgoing to miss her next year. Thechemistry that we have will be hardto find.”

Now the team is ready to competefor a Kansas 5A state championship.

On theHardenpath Aquinas’ DaShawn Hardenhas navigated through achildhood of change whilefinding success on the court.

By CANDACE BUCKNERThe Kansas City Star

GARVEY SCOTT | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Aquinas senior DaShawn Hardenhas led the unbeaten Saints tothe Kansas 5A state tournament.

SEE HARDEN | B10

L ance Armstrong took no questions, andthat’s for the best. He flew on a private jetto Kansas City for a wonderful announce-

ment with Sporting KC, the kind that other pro-fessional teams willcopy if they have theheart and guts, but hisinclusion as anythingmore than figureheadcan only detract.That’s a lot to digest, solet’s start with thesimple. Sporting KC —the Major League Soc-

cer team formerly known as the Wizards — isbelieved to be America’s first professional sportsteam to give stadium rights to charity.Think about that. The team is literally naming itsnew $200 million stadium after the fight againstcancer — Livestrong Sporting Park.Pretty cool, right? Mostly, yes.

Partnership is more complicatedthan it appears — but it’s still aninnovative and admirable move.

SAM MELLINGER

COMMENTARY

SEE MELLINGER | B5

The Royals and first-base coachDoug Sisson are trying toemploy an aggressive approachon the base paths this year. | B4

Off and runningin spring training

CLASSIFIED | B10In Print. Online.

Anytime.

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WWW.KANSASCITY.COM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2011 B5SOCCER | THE KANSAS CITY STAR.

Sporting KC surrenders anestimated $2 million per yearin a traditional naming-rightsdeal and as much as $10 mil-lion in stadium revenue oversix years in return for only thestandard tax break that goeswith all charitable contribu-tions.Livestrong’s “payment” — ifyou can call it that — comeswith Armstrong’s access tobig-name performers whocould help fill the stadium forhigh-dollar concerts. Arm-strong is close with JustinTimberlake, for instance. Heshares a house in France withBono. Jimmy Buffett rode inthe pace car during one ofArmstrong’s Tour de Franceraces.And here is where the morecomplete picture starts toform, the one not includedamong either side’s talkingpoints.Instead of a standard deal,Sporting KC is helping a noblecause and hoping that a betterconcert schedule for the sta-dium will offset or even sur-pass the financial sacrifice.So this is business mixed withcharity, which would other-wise be perfectly fine becauseSporting KC is a business andArmstrong is an Americanicon — his 2.7 million Twitterfollowers are 35th most in theworld, one spot behind Google— and head of one of thecountry’s most influentialnonprofits.Except that Sporting KC is alsoheavily invested in childrenand their parents, and Arm-strong’s personal and profes-sional lives are by now mud-died with ugliness including anongoing grand-jury investiga-tion regarding allegations ofillegal performance-enhancingdrug use.So, now what do you think?Still worth it?

❙ ❙ ❙

Robb Heineman thinks so.He is Sporting KC’s chief oper-ating officer. You may notknow much about him becauseof the team’s and soccer’ssmaller local profile, but he isthe face of what may be themost effective professionalownership group in KansasCity.Heineman is innovative, smart,ambitious and absolutely un-afraid to challenge convention.He’s tapped kegs in the parkinglot at pregame tailgates, takenon fans through messageboards and even challengedthe Kansas governor on Twit-ter.That last moment is one he’dlike back, but can you imagineClark Hunt or David Glassdoing any of that?Get Heineman in a thoughtfulmoment — which is most

moments — and he’ll tell youhe thinks teams in more visibleleagues could benefit fromdoing the same. He includesthe Royals.Heineman has big ideas for histeam now. A lot of folks crit-icized the team’s name change,and Heineman understands,but he also legitimately seeshis franchise undergoing anenormous brand redefinitionthat’s been years in the mak-ing.All of which is to say thatHeineman’s default setting isto take chances. If you’re usedto seeing things done one way,Heineman will usually want totry it the other way.Maybe this explains why Hei-neman thought to contactArmstrong’s Livestrong Foun-dation about a partnership.Maybe it explains why — aftertalking to others involved inbusiness with Armstrong —Heineman was willing to over-look the risks.“The reasons we’re doing thisare independent of Lance,” hesays. “It’s all about the founda-tion and the mission of thefoundation, and that’s why wewere attracted to them. I don’tthink that’s anything that has

any ability to diminish whatwe’re doing.”And if the grand-jury investi-gation leads to Armstrongbeing proved a cheater and aliar?“We can navigate through it,”Heineman says.

❙ ❙ ❙

So this deal is more compli-cated than it appears.For Sporting KC, what ispushed as an altruistic ventureis also a complicated and gutsycalculation about cancer re-search and Armstrong’s ties toentertainers against the risk ofbeing seen as partnering with apossible crook.For Livestrong, what is pushedas a no-brainer way to gainmore revenue for an unim-peachably good cause is also asmart way to broaden a brandand diversify revenue streamsin case the investigation has abad ending for Armstrong.None of which means this isn’ta noble gesture by SportingKC. The Royals and Chiefseach have extensive commu-nity involvement, but not likethis, certainly not when calcu-lated by a percentage of totalteam revenue.

Greed is not just a part ofsports. It is the status quo. Wesaw it in college sports’shake-up last summer thatthreatened to dissolve the Big12, and we’re seeing it now onboth sides of the NFL collec-tive-bargaining dispute.There are traces of self-interestin this deal between SportingKC and Livestrong, more thaneither side would let on publicly.And that’s fine, as long as weall understand it. The netresult is more money to fightcancer.More sports owners shoulduse their self-interest like this.To reach Sam Mellinger, call816-234-4365, send e-mail tosmellinger@kcstar.com orfollow twitter.com/mellinger.

MELLINGER: There’s risk in Livestrong nameFROM B1

all stadium revenues — a mini-mum of $7.5 million over sixyears — to fund the nonprofit’seffort to fight cancer.

“Suddenly, it hit us that thiswas a great idea,” said Ulman,who, like Armstrong, is a can-cer survivor.

And that’s how LivestrongSporting Park, as it was chris-tened Tuesday during a newsconference at the stadium, fi-nally came to be.

Sporting KC CEO Robb Hei-neman is confident the sta-dium, which is set to open June9, will lure many big-timeevents to Kansas City. Thehope is that by partnering withArmstrong, who has the ear ofseveral popular musical artists,the club can easily recoup,through concerts, the esti-mated $2 million to $3 million ayear it gave up by giving awaythe stadium’s naming rights.

“I believe we’ll have enter-tainers who otherwisewouldn’t have played our ven-ue,” Heineman said.

Of course, there’s also thesimple goodwill that comeswith working with and donat-ing to an organization that’s

raised more than $400 millionfor cancer research since 1997.

“This was a no-brainer,” Hei-neman said.

It’s also unique. No stadiumsor arenas in any of the four ma-jor North American profes-sional sports — NFL, MajorLeague Baseball, NBA or NHL— are named after a charity,

and no Major League Soccerstadiums are as well.

The partnership is similar toone forged between F.C. Barce-lona, a popular soccer club inSpain, and UNICEF in 2006.Barcelona agreed to pay UNI-CEF 1.5 million euro per year toput the nonprofit’s logo on itsjerseys. Heineman said it didn’t

influence Sporting KC’s think-ing much.

Don’t expect to see the Live-strong logo on Sporting KC’suniform anytime soon, howev-er. Major League Soccer has asponsorship deal with adidas,which provides uniforms forevery team. Heineman saidhe’s already spoken to MLScommissioner Don Garberabout the fact that SportingKC’s biggest partner has directties to Nike, one of adidas’ ri-vals.

“We don’t see how, in anyway, this jeopardizes our rela-tionship with adidas,” Heine-man said.

Indeed. Even the stadium’snew logo is absent of anyswooshes.

But Nike does have a role inthis saga, small as it may be.Armstrong recalled a shortstory on Tuesday about the lasttime he went with a crazy-but-innovative plan that he didn’tget behind immediately.

“In 2004, Nike came to usand said…we make these rub-ber bracelets for our basketballplayers,” Armstrong began.“We’re going to make five mil-lion of them, we’re going to

make them yellow, we’re goingto put Livestrong on them…andwe’re going to sell all of themfor $1 apiece.

“We all looked at each otherand laughed,” Armstrong said.“What in the hell are we gonnado with 4.8 million pieces ofrubber?”

Nike and Livestrong went on

to sell more than 70 million ofthose bracelets, which immedi-ately became a part of pop cul-ture. And after some initialdoubt, Ulman and Armstrongare betting they’re about to hitthe jackpot again.

“I’d never bet against theseguys,” Ulman said of SportingKC’s ownership group. “We’recounting on them hitting $7.5million over the next (six)years. We think the upside ismassive.”

STADIUM: Partnership may help club lure big eventsFROM B1

U.S. NATIONAL TEAM TO PLAY IN KC

Soccer fans, get ready. TheU.S. men’s national team iscoming to Kansas City.

The CONCACAF Gold Cupschedule was releasedTuesday, and Kansas City —one of 11 U.S. cities that havebeen scheduled to be hostsfor Gold Cup games this year— will be the site of afirst-round showdownbetween the U.S. team andGuadeloupe on June 14 atSporting KC’s brand-newstadium in Kansas City, Kan.

“I think it’s a proven fact nowthat having one of the bestsoccer stadiums in NorthAmerica, we’ll be gettingmore and more competitionslike this,” Sporting KC coachPeter Vermes said in a

statement. “So I think it’s notonly exciting for this timeperiod, but for the future aswell.”

This will mark the first time in10 years that the U.S. men’snational team will play inKansas City. It last played herein 2001, when it faced CostaRica in a World Cup qualifierat Arrowhead Stadium.

The game, scheduled to startat 8 p.m., will be preceded bya matchup between Panamaand Canada at 6 p.m.

Tickets will go on sale March16. For more information, visitwww.SportingKC.com/virtualvenue.

| Terez A. Paylor,tpaylor@kcstar.com

@ Go to KansasCity.com fora photo gallery.