Crypto.com is paying $700 million over 20 years to rename the Staples Center.
This is the richest naming rights deal in sports history.
One of the biggest sports and entertainment venues in the US, the Staples Center in Los Angeles, will be renamed after a cryptocurrency company in a multi-million dollar deal.
Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), the sports and entertainment conglomerate that has majority ownership of the Kings and had a stake in the Lakers until last summer, built the arena that quickly became a famous setting for major events in the US’s second-largest metropolitan area. The Lakers have won six NBA championships during their tenure in the cavernous arena, including three straight in its first three years of operation.
Crypto.com has agreed a 20-year deal with owner AEG.
The rebrand will be effective from Christmas Day.
Staples Center is getting a new name. Starting Christmas Day, it will be Crypto.com Arena. The downtown Los Angeles home of the NBA's Lakers and Clippers, the NHL's Kings and the WNBA's Sparks will change its name after 22 years of operation, arena owner AEG announced this week.
Crypto.com is paying $700 million over 20 years to rename the building.
The 20,000-seat arena has been the Staples Center since it opened in October 1999, with the naming rights owned by the American office-supplies retail company under a 20-year agreement. The name will change when the Lakers host the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA's annual Christmas showcase.
Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency platform and exchange headquartered in Singapore. Founded in 2016, Crypto.com has been on a spending spree across the global sports landscape over the past year. The platform has inked high-visibility sponsorship deals with Formula One, the UFC, Italy's Serie A, Paris St-Germain and the NHL's Montreal Canadiens - while also purchasing the Philadelphia 76ers' uniform sponsorship patch.
Along with its sports tenants, the Staples Center has hosted 19 Grammy Awards ceremonies, three NBA All-Star Games, two NHL All-Star Games and countless high-profile concerts, performances and important public events, including memorials for Michael Jackson, Nipsey Hussle and Kobe Bryant.
The Clippers will be short-timers at Crypto.com Arena. They're scheduled to open owner Steve Ballmer's $1 billion, 18,000-seat Intuit Dome in Inglewood in 2024 when their Staples Center lease expires. The Sparks also could leave downtown then, although nothing has been decided.
Source: Statista
UK Premier League football club, Watford recently announced that their new shirt sponsor, Stake, had paid them in cryptocurrency. The club had previously been sponsored by industry giant Bitcoin.