The iconic Staples Center in Los Angeles is getting a new name. As from Christmas Day, it will rebrand to Crypto.com Arena. The 20-year name-change agreement is touted as one of the biggest naming rights deals in history.
The Staples Center is home to the celebrated Sparks, Kings, Clippers, and the Los Angeles Lakers since its grand opening in 1999. Inside the LA’s iconic arena, six Lakers championship banners hung since its official opening.
Over that span, the Kings have won two Stanley Cup titles. In 2001 and 2002, Sparks captured a series of WNBA Championship titles in Staples Center — and in 2016, they brought home their third WNBA championship title.
Name change strips the history of Staples Center
Paul George, NBA’s Clippers Forward, said the name change is “weird” and feels like the history of the center is dissipating into the ether.
“I grew up this being Staples and being the place to play and place to be… It’s the same location, but it’s kind of like stripping the history here by calling it something else”.
The Clippers are moving into the Intuit Dome for the 2024-2025 NBA season.
Besides the sporting events, nearly 76 million people have attended high-profile events, award shows, and concerts in the arena’s long year history.
The record-breaking attendance remains the fight between WBA Welterweight Champion Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley, which pulled a crowd of about 21,000 fans on January 25th, 2009.
Naming rights bought for nearly $700 million
Crypto.com, the Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, is paying AEG approximately $700 million to rename the Staples Center’s building over the next 20 years. This figure makes it one of the largest naming deals in sports history.
According to reliable sources, both parties (Crypto.com and AEG) won’t publicly announce the terms of the agreement. AEG spokespersons won’t even comment on the figure to the public. But under the agreement, Crypto.com will become the official partner of the LA Kings and Los Angeles Lakers.
Currently, AEG owns and operates the Staples Center and other major sports and music venues, including the Mercedes Platz in Berlin and The O2 in London. Crypto.com, founded in 2016, is on a spending spree across global sports venues.
The crypto exchange — a crypto trading platform with over 150 digital coins including Bitcoin — is linked to high-visibility sponsorship deals with the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens, PSG, Italy’s Serie A, the UFC, and Formula One. The exchange also bought the Philadelphia 76ers’ uniform sponsorship deal.
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