Staples Center owner AEG and cryptocurrency company Crypto.com have entered into a 20-year naming rights agreement that will rename Staples Center to Crypto.com Arena, the companies announced this week.
The name change will be unveiled on Christmas Day, when the Los Angeles Lakers will host the Brooklyn Nets. All of the Downtown Los Angeles venue’s external signage will be updated by June 2022.
“This partnership represents the fastest-growing cryptocurrency platform and the biggest sports and live entertainment company in the world converging to drive the future of sports and live entertainment as well as the incredible legacy of this arena for decades to come,” AEG Chief Revenue Officer Todd Goldstein said in a statement.
The move follows a more than 20-year run by the venue as Staples Center since opening in 1999 and comes as part of a marketing push by Crypto.com, a Singapore-based company that provides a cryptocurrency app, exchange, wallet, and non-fungible token, or NFT, marketplace, among other products and services.
In serving as the 20,000-seat home arena for the Los Angeles Clippers, Kings, Sparks, and Lakers and venue for other entertainment events, Staples Center hosts more than 240 events and welcomes more than four million guests per year.
Crypto.com paid more than $700 million as part of the newly announced deal, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing sources familiar with the deal.
The deal will effect change across the arena, L.A. Live, Microsoft Theater, and The Novo, with premium branded areas to include a 3,300-square-foot activation space at the arena’s entrance. The deal will also lead to branded areas on the main concourse of the arena and throughout the L.A. Live campus, according to the two companies’ announcement.
“We’re very excited about partnering with AEG and investing long term in this city, starting with Crypto.com Arena in the heart of downtown, and using our platform in new and creative ways so that cryptocurrency can power the future of world class sports, entertainment and technology for fans in LA and around the world,” Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek said in a statement.
