Staples Center to be renamed Crypto.com Arena in massive $700 million deal
The Staples Center is no more.
The iconic arena in downtown Los Angeles, which has been home to both the Lakers and Clippers since 1999, will be renamed on Christmas Day.
It will now be Crypto.com Arena, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania and confirmed by AEG and the cryptocurrency exchange, the L.A. Times reported. The deal is believed to be the largest venue naming rights deal in United States history.
Staples Center – the iconic home of the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers among others since 1999 – will have a new name beginning Dec. 25: https://t.co/lur8Hbuv0r Arena. It’s believed to be the largest U.S. venue naming rights deal to date.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 17, 2021
The arena, which is owned by AEG, is also home to the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings. The Grammy Awards have been held at the arena since 2000, too.
Crypto.com paid more than $700 million for the 20-year naming rights, according to the Times.
“In the next few years, people will look back at this moment as the moment when crypto crossed the chasm into the mainstream,” Crypto.com chief executive Kris Marszalek told the Los Angeles Times from his home in Hong Kong.
“This is just such a brilliant move from the guys at AEG, because the next decade belongs to crypto. And this positions L.A. and this particular venue right at the center of it.”
By comparison, the Clippers recently struck a 23-year deal to name their new Inglewood arena the Intuit Dome. That deal, according to CNBC, is worth more than $500 million. The arena is set to open in 2024. The naming rights deal for SoFi Stadium — which is home to both the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers — is worth more than $600 million, according to Sports Business Journal.
Staples initially signed a $100 million deal in 1997 for the naming rights to the arena, and then signed another deal in 2009. AEG bought the rights back in 2019, but delayed renaming the arena due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Times.
Crypto.com is the second cryptocurrency company to land a sports arena in the United States in recent months. FTX reached a $135 million to rename the Miami Heat’s arena from the American Airlines Arena to FTX Arena in June.
