OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Thursday morning Union Omaha announced it will be partnering with CHI Health and Nebraska Medicine as uniform sponsors for the 2020 season.
The CHI Health logo will be featured on the black primary kit, while Nebraska Medicine will be on the white secondary jersey.
“There are few times in our lives where we are going to go through something like this,” said Martie Cordaro, Union Omaha president. “We wear our partners over our hearts and this is the opportunity to do that. It was natural. Our best asset are our jerseys and we’re really excited about this.”
Proceeds from jersey sales will go towards area healthcare organizations combating the coronavirus. Union Omaha estimates the monetary value from the sponsorship, jersey sale proceeds and other financial donations will be close to $250,000 for the healthcare organizations. In fact, Union Omaha will be losing money off the deal since a corporation isn’t paying any fees to have their logo on the front of the uniform.
“This is about community, this is about bringing people together,” said Dan Houghton, a local investor for Union Omaha.
“You need to be connected to the community and if you’re looking at it strictly from the income statement than you’re not doing your job,” said Union Omaha Chairman Gary Green. “We haven’t created revenue today but we’ve created much more in goodwill that will help us.”
This is the second major announcement the team’s made this week. On Tuesday the club announced Green donated 45,000 masks to area hospitals.
“There’s nothing we can do to say thank you, it goes a long way,” said Dr. Katie Freeman with Nebraska Medicine.
“The verbal support, the supply support, what it means to our team, it’s pretty overwhelming in a great way,” said Julie Gernetzke with CHI Health.
Green said the decision was a no-brainer.
“I felt so powerless leaving the community that I call home and as I’m with my building services business and sourcing masks and sanitizer and gloves I came up with the idea I have access with this, now I know what I can do to help,” Green said.
On top of the two main sponsors, the jerseys also have a patch for the Blackstone District to honor a local business partner and the hashtag “Bend the Curve” is printed on the backside underneath the numbers.
“This is all about us playing a role and bending the curve and showing that our healthcare workers have the resources required to treat those that need it most,” Green said.
Union Omaha still doesn’t know when its inaugural 2020 season will start or if play will have to wait until 2021. However the team wanted to show healthcare workers they’re behind them every day.
“We have two healthcare institutions that are normally competitors working together,” Green said. “It also demonstrates how sports can be a unifying factor and always will be a unifying factor for our region.”
As of now the game jersey partnership is only for the 2020 season.
Watch reporter Phil Bergman’s story in the above video.