Ivy Funds extends jersey sponsorship with Sporting KC

Sporting Kansas City has extended its jersey sponsorship with the Ivy Funds through the 2022 Major League Soccer season.

The Ivy Funds, which are managed by Overland Park-based Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., became the team’s jersey sponsor and investment management partner in 2013. The original partnership agreement ran through 2017. It’s now been extended five more years, the team announced Monday.

In addition to the jersey sponsor for Sporting Kansas City and its four youth-affiliated teams, Ivy Funds will continue as the naming rights partner for the Ivy Funds Executive Level at Sporting Park in western Wyandotte County.

“This is absolutely the right moment in time to expand our partnership,” Thomas Butch, president and chief executive of Ivy Funds Distributor Inc., a Waddell & Reed affiliate, said in a statement. “We very much believe the sport will continue to accelerate its growth in the U.S., and globally, with MLS and Sporting KC at the vanguard of that effort.”

The Star

This story was originally published October 6, 2014 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Ivy Funds extends jersey sponsorship with Sporting KC."