Hendrick Motorsports has selected Innovative Partnerships Group as its agency of record to support the organization’s commercial strategy and partnership development.
Innovative Partnerships Group will work closely with Hendrick Motorsports to create innovative sponsorship programs and platforms designed to grow the long-term value of the team’s NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts sponsorship portfolio.
The collaboration will focus on identifying new brand opportunities, particularly with non-endemic partners, and developing integrated programs that extend beyond the racetrack. Areas of exploration include future-focused concepts such as the “garage of the future,” immersive brand integrations, and campus-wide activations that enhance the Hendrick Motorsports experience for partners and fans alike.
To support the engagement, Innovative Partnerships Group will dedicate business development resources in Charlotte to work alongside the Hendrick Motorsports team.
The Great Park Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine, the only professional soccer stadium in Orange County, has emerged as one of the region’s most valuable sports marketing opportunities. With naming rights currently available, the venue offers brands a rare chance to align with a premier soccer destination in one of Southern California’s most dynamic markets. Innovative Partnerships Group is the agency representing the stadium and leading the effort to bring this high-profile sponsorship opportunity to market.
Further elevating the venue’s prominence, the City of Irvine and U.S. Soccer have announced that the U.S. Men’s National Team has selected the Great Park as its official Team Base Camp training site during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
As part of this designation, the U.S. Men’s National Team will conduct its training sessions at the Great Park Championship Soccer Stadium. The stadium, opened in 2017, is a premier soccer-specific facility that seats more than 5,000 spectators and has become a centerpiece of the Great Park’s growing sports complex. The selection underscores the quality of Irvine’s athletic facilities and reflects the City’s ongoing commitment to developing venues capable of hosting world-class competition while remaining accessible to the community.
“We are honored that the U.S. Men’s National Team has chosen to train at the Great Park during the FIFA World Cup,” said Irvine Mayor Larry Agran. “This decision reflects the caliber of the Great Park Championship Soccer Stadium and the professionalism of the staff who operate it. Irvine is proud to welcome the players, coaches, and supporters from around the world to our great City for one of the world’s most celebrated sporting events.”
U.S. Soccer also praised the facility and its role in preparing the team for the global tournament.
“We are delighted to have the Great Park as our training site for the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” said U.S. Soccer Sporting Director Matt Crocker. “The facilities are simply outstanding and will provide the perfect training environment for our team to prepare to be successful at the World Cup.”
In conjunction with the team’s presence in Irvine, the Soccer Forward Foundation — U.S. Soccer’s legacy and social impact initiative — will collaborate with the City of Irvine and local organizations to host community-based coaching development programming during April in the lead-up to the tournament. The initiative will provide local coaches with training, tools, and resources to help them better support and inspire young athletes, ensuring that the impact of the World Cup extends well beyond the competition itself and strengthens the local soccer ecosystem.
“Moments like this create an incredible opportunity to connect the world’s biggest sporting event with the communities that make the game special,” said Lex Chalat, Executive Director of the Soccer Forward Foundation. “Through Soccer Forward, we are proud to partner with the City of Irvine and local organizations to equip coaches with the tools, training, and support they need to positively impact young people. By investing in the leaders who bring the game to life in their communities, we can ensure the momentum of the World Cup creates lasting opportunities for the next generation.”
The U.S. Men’s National Team, established in 1913, has qualified for 11 FIFA World Cups and will compete on home soil for the first time in more than three decades. The 2026 FIFA World Cup — co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico — will be the largest tournament in the event’s history, featuring 48 teams and 104 matches.
“From its transformation as Marine Corps Air Station El Toro into one of the nation’s premier municipal parks, the Great Park has become a destination for athletes and families alike,” said Irvine Councilmember and Great Park Board Chair William Go. “Hosting the U.S. Men’s National Team during the 2026 FIFA World Cup is a once-in-a-generation moment for the park and a proud milestone for our entire community.”
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will take place from June 11 through July 19 across host venues in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The U.S. Men’s National Team will open its tournament against Paraguay on June 12 at SoFi Stadium. The team most recently advanced to the Round of 16 at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Training sessions at the Great Park during the tournament will not be open to the public. Additional information regarding a welcome event in April and a potential community day will be announced in the coming weeks.
OCVIBE has selected Innovative Partnerships Group (IPG) as its exclusive agency of record for the $4B mixed-use development project that is underway in the roughly 100 acres surrounding Honda Center in Anaheim. OCVIBE, owned and developed by the Samueli family (which owns the Ducks), ran an RFP, and spoke in-depth to at least three agencies, ultimately opting for IPG, which has past mixed-use district sponsorship sales experience with TD Place in Ottawa and Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village. IPG is also working with FC Barcelona on its Spotify Camp Nou redevelopment and will focus on sourcing national and global brands to activate in OCVIBE, which will begin substantially coming to life in 2026.
“IPG has a proven track record of success for different property types,” said Graham Siderius, Head of Partnerships for OCVIBE, the Ducks and Honda Center.
IPG founder & CEO Jeff Marks said the firm was delighted to be selected for a project of such magnitude in the agency's backyard. OCVIBE is a unique sports-adjacent mixed-use development, to this point at least, in that it’s being created around an existing venue. IPG, which takes over for Premier Partnerships, doesn’t start from zero. OCVIBE has one founding partner on the books, the global insurance giant Gallagher, which has made mixed-use development sponsorship core to its sports marketing efforts. Siderius said there are four more partners signed that haven’t been unveiled yet and discussions are already underway with current Ducks and Honda Center sponsors.
"It’s a perfect opportunity for them and they’re who we wanted to approach first,” Siderius said. "It just represents a scaled-up version and new opportunities. A lot of positive response from current partners.”
OCVIBE sponsorships will begin activating this year, whether existing sponsors or new ones. District naming rights aren’t available but dozens of other spaces, venues, and projected events (like a summer concert series) within the larger district will be. Major assets, including the 5,700-seat concert venue, food hall, an office building, and one of the first of several urban parks, will be online by early 2026. At least three subsequent phases are projected to fill out the development by the end of the decade.
“We can bring brands outside the walls of the arena, we can touch what most brands call normal daily activities,” Siderius said. “And we’re very proud of the tech stack at OCVIBE and how that’s going to be a differentiator for the development.”
Central to that will be a deployment of district-wide WiFi 7. Last year, the Ducks and Honda Center launched an in-house-developed app that is beta-testing features and functions that will tie the city-owned arena to the wider district, including the blending of digital opportunities with the physical experience. Siderius and Marks both think that OCVIBE will present an intriguing b-to-b activation opportunity for tech companies that could produce real-life examples and case studies of their tech in use.
“What we’ve been finding out is a lot of tech companies and innovative tech companies are so excited to be part of Henry Samueli’s vision,” Marks said, "Things that have never been done.”
