Kickstart: Playing games

Partnerships between companies and sports teams can take many forms, including stadium naming rights, a name on a jersey or exclusive footwear contracts.

For pipe and infrastructure supplier Uponor and Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins, a collaboration for sustainability and community impact has Uponor being named the "official plumbing, infrastructure and building solutions partner" of the Twins.

Uponor, part of Germany's Georg Fischer Ltd., has its North American offices in Apple Valley, Minn., near the Twins home. It says the connection with the Twins is its first with a professional sports organization.

The Twins and Uponor will jointly lead a community-focused initiative called "Leading With Water, Enriching Lives Together."

"The shared interest in supporting our community with sustainable solutions is the driving force behind this partnership," John Reutter, interim president of GF Building Flow Solutions Americas, said in a news release. "The Minnesota Twins continue to raise the bar to deliver an outstanding ballpark experience with green measures in place. We're excited to continue these efforts by bringing the Uponor brand into Twins Territory and underscoring the importance of leading with energy efficiency in buildings of all kinds."

The Twins' home stadium of Target Field says it is the only MLB facility with LEED certifications for sustainable construction and operations.

Uponor's cross-linked polyethylene pipes are used in a radiant heating system providing warmth to the home dugout bench.

A far bigger collaborative effort between plastics companies and sports stadiums is in the making in the United Kingdom, where the Premiere League's Manchester United — co-owned by materials company Ineos — unveiled plans for a proposed new stadium that would seat 100,000.

Ineos founder and U.K. billionaire Jim Ratcliffe bought about 27 percent of the soccer club in 2024 but turned over those shares to Ineos late in the same year. He has also put more of his own money into the team.

Despite recent struggles on the field, Manchester United is an established competitor, but it was facing complaints that its existing stadium, Old Trafford, needed to be replaced. That led to the club's unveiling of a massive complex proposed to be built in the same area. And yes, the team did recently announce job and spending cuts for the club and stadium staff. I'm not certain where it located spare change to invest in a brand-new facility.

Materials maker Covestro, the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins and Carnegie Mellon University cooperated in a hands-on teaching program that saw students brainstorm ideas for safer hockey gloves.

The program marked the eighth year of Rethink the Rink engineering project. Past years have seen students consider ways to improve dasher boards, protective barriers, helmets and neck protection for players.

Gloves are ripe for reconsideration because the basic design hasn't changed for years, Penguins officials said in a highlight video.

Equipment supplier Bauer Hockey will consider all of the students' proposals for future development.