Crushers, Mercy ink stadium name deal

The Lake Erie Crushers and Mercy Health – Lorain have reached an agreement on a new partnership to rename the former Sprenger Stadium, Mercy Health Stadium.

Crushers Co-Owner and President Tom Kramig announced the new agreement during a Nov. 24 news conference.

The t hree- year agreement is effective

Jan. 1, 2021 in anticipation of the Crushers returning to the field next season.

The stadium is located at 2009 Baseball Blvd. in Avon.

It will be renamed Mercy Health Stadium, showing Mercy Health’s role in the community.

“We are very excited about this extension of our long-standing partnership with the Crushers organization”, said Edwin Oley, market president, Mercy Health – Lorain. “Putting the Mercy Health name on the ballpark is just another way our ministry continues to invest within the communities we serve, and in the great game of baseball in northern Ohio.”

The organization is top notch on and off the field from its management, attention to detail and customer service, he said.

“Their values are very much the same values that we expound in our organization,” he said. “So, it’s been, just over the course of those eight years, just a tremendous partnership.

“And we looked at the opportunity of doing naming rights with Tom (Kramig) and the Crushers and felt that it was time to expand our relation

ship and increase our investment in the organization and in the community and really look forward to what that ultimately can bring to us.”

The partnership with the Crushers dates back a decade when the hospital system signed on as the presenting sponsor of the Crushers in 2012.

Mercy Health – Lorain operates two acute care hospitals within Lorain County, along with a number of primary, specialty and walk-in care sites in addition to a full-service cancer care center.

“To be able to call Mercy Health Stadium home for the next three years, is a great thrill for the Crushers organization,” Kramig said. “We look forward to continuing to work with Mercy Health – Lorain to bring affordable family entertainment to Cleveland’s west-side communities for many years to come.”

The financial terms of the sponsorship agreement were not disclosed, but the announcement comes less than 24 hours after Avon City Council agreed to extend the Crusher’s lease of the stadium through the 2021 season.