Welp! It’s Staples Center no more. The venue where the Lakers and Clippers play in downtown Los Angeles is getting a new name for Christmas: Crypto.com Arena.
The building, which opened in 1997, will wear the new name for 20 years under a deal between the Singapore cryptocurrency exchange and AEG, the owner and operator of the arena, both parties announced Tuesday. Crypto.com paid more than $700 million for the naming rights, according to sources familiar with the terms, making it one of the biggest naming deals in sports history, reports the LA Times.
If you’re wondering, the arena’s new logo will debut Dec. 25, when the Lakers host the Brooklyn Nets, and all of Staples Center signage will be replaced with the new name by June 2022.
Crypto.com’s chief executive, Kris Marszalek, hopes that the new name will come to be seen as a sign of 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,” Marszalek said when reached by the Times at his home in Hong Kong.
“This is just such a brilliant move from the guys at AEG, because the next decade belongs to crypto,” he said. “And this positions L.A. and this particular venue right at the center of it.”
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Here’s MORE via the LA Times:
Visitors will see one clear change at the entrance to the arena from L.A. Live, adjacent to the statue of Magic Johnson, where 3,300 square feet will become a dedicated Crypto.com “activation space” featuring crypto-centric interactive experiences for sports or music fans. Crypto.com has also signed with the Lakers and Kings as their official crypto partner.
The storied venue got its original name in December 1997, when then-booming Staples Inc. paid $100 million for the rights for 10 years. Beckerman, who was chief financial officer of AEG when the arena complex was first being developed, said that the value of the name was less of a sure thing back then.
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