Seattle Sounders FC and Providence today announced the official naming of the club’s new state-of-the-art training grounds and club headquarters located in Renton, Washington, which is now known as the Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse. The facility serves as a new generational home for Sounders FC as the club celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2024 and looks ahead to setting the foundation for its next 50 years and beyond.
As part of the community-focused partnership between Sounders FC and Providence originally entered into in 2023, today’s news marks more than simply an agreement regarding a facility name and highlights the commitment of the two organizations to deepening the core tenets of their partnership.
These tenets include providing best-in-class performance care and medical services to the club’s players, as Providence Swedish serves as Official Medical Services Provider and Official Healthcare Partner of Sounders FC. Under this partnership, physicians from Providence Swedish serve as the club’s team doctors, working alongside the sports medicine staff to support the club’s goal of competing for and winning championships by helping players manage acute injuries, maximize rehabilitation and training, prevent injuries and navigate general health needs.
Additionally, Sounders FC and Providence remain staunchly centered in serving the greater community through driving meaningful impact around youth mental health and wellness.
“Over the course of our first season in partnership with Providence, it’s exciting to see what we’ve achieved together in such a short time. We’re also energized by future opportunities to deepen our relationship and to impact our community,” said Sounders FC Majority Owner Adrian Hanauer. “Today’s news marks another step in that journey as we officially introduce the Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse. Working with Providence, we want the name of our new home to reflect key elements of this partnership, recognizing that Sounders FC is both a soccer club and a community institution. We’re proud of the team’s legacy of success on the field and the performance advantages Providence’s expertise brings to those efforts. We’re equally proud of being a club that is dedicated to bettering the community it serves. The Clubhouse symbolizes both of those philosophical pillars.”
“Our partnership has always been about improving the health and wellbeing of the community, starting with students in the Renton School District. We’ve made tremendous progress in our first year together, providing mental health and wellness resources to Renton youth,” said Elizabeth Wako, M.D., President and CEO of Swedish Health Services. “We look forward to continuing to do more together and are proud to partner with a world-class team committed to serving the local community.”
The Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse features four full-size training pitches and 50,000 square feet of office space, housing the club’s entire ecosystem for the first time in the franchise’s history.
Located in Renton and developed in partnership with Unico and the City of Renton, the facility provides a state-of-the-art home for Sounders FC’s soccer and business operations with a team-first design layout built around the holistic needs of the entire Rave Green organization. Broader plans for the development of the wider property include housing, retail and entertainment elements, with the Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse set as the anchor for a vibrant community-focused campus.
The facility’s new name is representative of two central areas of focus for Sounders FC: performance and community. Throughout its history, Sounders soccer has existed as both a soccer club and a community institution, and the team’s new home has been consciously developed in partnership with Providence to serve the needs of each side of this same coin.
The first floor of the building houses the club’s technical side, with every innovative and modern advantage available to support the needs of the club’s players, coaches and medical support staff. With performance at the core of Sounders FC’s 50-year legacy, every element of the Performance Center is designed to support the consistent and sustained success that the club and its fans expect from the winningest MLS team over the past decade. From the well-appointed weight room to the spacious training room, players receive the highest standard of care, including access to a cryotherapy chamber, expansive sauna, rehabilitation pools and more. Additionally, players have access to mental and emotional wellness support.
Part of the Providence family of organizations, Providence Swedish represents the largest, most comprehensive healthcare system in Western Washington, with 22,000 caregivers, more than 2,200 providers, eight hospitals and 244 clinics, offering primary care, specialty and subspecialty care in a number of clinical areas, including cancer care, cardiovascular health, neurosciences, orthopedics, digestive health and women’s and children’s care. A not-for-profit organization, Providence Swedish provided more than $406 million in community benefit in the Puget Sound region last year as part of its commitment to serving those in need and improving the health of the region.
“As the official medical provider and health care partner of Sounders FC, Providence Swedish is committed to providing the team with state-of-the-art comprehensive healthcare so players can stay healthy physically and mentally, rehabilitate injuries safely and efficiently, and maintain world-class performance at the highest levels. We’re excited that the new Performance Center & Clubhouse offers a space that promotes the team’s health with a foundation focused on a player's physical, emotional, and general health well-being. Our medical team could not be prouder to have our name associated with the new facility,” said Steven Stanos, D.O., Executive Medical Director for Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine at Providence Swedish.
On the second floor, Sounders FC’s business staff and front office operate. The Clubhouse name is derived from the property’s rich history, but also encompasses the wider community goals held by Sounders FC and Providence.
A notable South End location that has a long and varied history, the club’s headquarters has been colloquially referred to as Longacres, the name of the thoroughbred horse racing track built on the location in 1932 as the Seattle-Tacoma Interurban Railway led to increased settlement and expansion in the Duwamish Valley, laying the groundwork for mid-century urbanization.
Operating into the early 1990s, Longacres was, at the time of its closing, the longest continually operated track on the West Coast – a gathering place driven by sport and competition, entertainment and interaction. A mainstay of the race day experience at Longacres was the Clubhouse, a large building located between the grandstands and pre-race paddock. The Clubhouse allowed for exceptional views of the racing and providing a communal space for fans of all stripes.
Adopting the Clubhouse moniker in the training facility’s official name is a way to recognize the history of the property while also centering community as a driving force within the Sounders FC-Providence partnership.
As originally announced when the two organizations came together in 2023, Sounders FC and Providence are committed to deepening their long-tenured roots in the community through intentional programming developed to address the mental wellbeing of students in the Renton School District, where both entities are headquartered.
The work within Renton School District allows important mental health programming and support to engage students in new ways, under direct advisement from district leadership and individual schools to ensure that investments are applied where and how they are most needed.
That programming got off to a successful start in its first year, as Sounders FC and Providence were able to implement mental health awareness and education throughout Renton-area schools, including over five Work2BeWell curriculum training sessions for over 250 teachers, seven mental wellness-themed assemblies to support youth of various ages and the institution of three small support groups and one student-led mental health club.
Funded by Providence's Well Being Trust, virtual therapy services were also launched across all schools and programs, providing accessibility to over 15,000 students. Over the first year of these virtual services, 228 unique students completed over 1,200 sessions.
Recognizing the direct tie between physical health and mental health, in 2023 Sounders FC and Providence partnered to launch a first annual sports physical clinic for Renton School District that provided free sports physicals and general health checkups for over 220 students. Additionally, the two organizations opened a co-branded mini-pitch at Benson Hill Elementary School to support students with an accessible play space, and organized several PE class takeovers at schools in Renton School District, where students learned soccer skills, interacted with special Sounders FC guests and more.
Sounders FC and Providence continue to grow their work with Renton School District going forward to support the health and wellbeing of the overall community. This commitment is on display tomorrow – Friday, April 5 – as Renton School District student-athletes join the celebration of the Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse. Tomorrow a select group of student-athletes can visit the facility for a tour and to meet Sounders FC athletes, followed by a panel hosted by former Sounder Steve Zakuani and featuring Sounders FC and Providence representatives to give the student-athletes the opportunity to learn and ask questions about how professional athletes are cared for, physically and mentally.
As a club that has always prided itself on a deep and true connection with its fanbase – stretching back to its inception in 1974 – Sounders FC also plans to make the Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse fan-friendly and community-oriented in various ways.
Twice a month, fans are welcome to come to the facility to watch team training sessions. For Season Ticket Members, exclusive access to an elevated viewing experience is available for these open training sessions. Members can sign up for sessions here, with more dates made available throughout the season and communicated to Members via the Sounders FC App.
In addition to the ongoing in-school programming implemented in Renton School District by Sounders FC and Providence, the Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse itself will be used to host Washington K-12 learning standards-aligned field trips for students from multiple school districts, with an emphasis on Renton schools. In 2024, Sounders FC and RAVE Foundation are piloting two field trips, one based on environmental sustainability utilizing the wetlands that surround the training facility property and the other centered around normalizing the practice of caring for your own mental health, utilizing the curriculum and tools developed through partnership with Providence.
Further plans for the facility include hosting “free play” events for community youth, specifically those who are unable to join local recreation or school teams due to financial or other barriers.
The Sounders FC and RAVE Foundation Rave Green Run also returns in 2024, providing a family-oriented 5K and one-mile kids race centered at the Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse. Race day will include opportunities to foster and celebrate both physical and mental wellness, from stretching and yoga pre-race to mindfulness meditation post-race and other fun, engaging ways to normalize wellness for all participants. Sounders FC and Providence are committed to making the Rave Green Run financially accessible to Renton School District students and their families by providing discounted and / or free race registration, with further details forthcoming.
