Armstrong Cuts Formal Ties with Livestrong

The saga surrounding Sporting KC's stadium name rights sponsor, Livestrong took another turn this past week, as on November 4th, Lance Armstrong resigned from his position on the board of directors for Livestrong.  The resignation cuts all formal ties between Armstrong and the charity that he had helped found. 

As a whole this should have absolutely no effect on Sporting KC, but since the USADA made their findings known on the investigation into Armstrong, there have been some calls for Sporting to sever their ties with the charity due to Armstrong's issues.  Sporting up to this point as done what other Livestrong partners, including Nike and Radio Shack, have done, kept their support with the charity.

With Armstrong now severing his formal ties with the charity, one has to wonder if some of those calls will stop or die down.  Some people will still say that Sporting should cut their ties because of the relationship Armstrong had with his charity during his doping.  Others will still say that Sporting should just move to another cancer charity, the biggest comment I hear is "one that actually does more cancer research."

I still firmly believe that Sporting will not make any move in relation to the stadium sponsor unless Nike makes a move to drop from sponsoring the Livestrong organization.  Each member of Sporting's ownership has been effected by cancer in their family, and Livestrong is the arguably the most high profile, especially in the sports world.  Sporting still have no reason to change the name, especially with Armstrong now backing further away from the charity to try to help it avoid further damage.