- Los Angeles’ Staples Center will soon be renamed as the Crytpo.com Arena under a new naming rights agreement.
- Crypto.com will pay $700 million USD for naming rights in a 20 year deal.
- The home of the NBA Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers along with the NHL Los Angeles Kings, the venue has been known as the Staples Center since it opened in 2021.
The retail office supply business isn’t what it used to be. In fact, in many ways it’s a dinosaur being buffeted by a variety of long-term cyclical trends. The more that businesses have digitized their operations, the less they need things like paper, printers and the other ‘staples’ (no pun intended…OK, actually I intended that one) of the big box office supply stores. They’ve done a generally awful job with technology retailing and simply can’t hang with Amazon online or even a store like BestBuy at the retail level. Whether we’re talking Staples, Office Depot or Office Max the majority of their locations are oversized, depressing and poorly stocked mausoleums of the analog era of big business frequently located in empty shopping centers in no longer vital parts of town. The final nail in the industry’s coffin will likely be the COVID-19 pandemic which is in the process of completely transforming the way that companies hire employees and how they work. Some businesses flourished during the pandemic–the aforementioned Amazon and BestBuy for example. All three of the major office supply firms had a huge opportunity dropped in their laps to pivot to a ‘one stop shop for remote workers’. They all blew it.
For at least a decade now, I’ve thought that it is downright silly for the iconic Los Angeles sports venue and home to the Lakers, Clippers and Kings to have the name of an outmoded company in a no longer relevant industry. The Staples Center might as well carry the name of Blockbuster Video, America Online or K-Mart. Fortunately, the 17 championship banners won by the Los Angeles Lakers and the two Stanley Cup banners of the Los Angeles Kings will no longer be disgraced by the name of their venue. Effective December 25, the venue will be known as the Crypto.com Arena in a $700 million USD, 20 year naming rights deal with the world’s fastest growing cryptocurrency platform. The agreement also makes Crypto.com an ‘official cryptocurrency platform partner’ of the LA Kings and Lakers.
A press release from Crypto.com gave this overview of the deal:
Recognizing these technologies will be at the forefront of powering the future of culture, creativity and entertainment in Los Angeles, AEG and Crypto.com will unveil the newly named Crypto.com Arena on Christmas Day.
The new agreement includes official designations across Crypto.com Arena, L.A. LIVE, Microsoft Theater, The Novo, the Los Angeles Lakers and the LA Kings, strategically placing the fastest growing crypto platform at the forefront of the global sports and live-entertainment industry for the next 20 years
Here’s some more backstory on the renaming deal along with the process by which the new arena name will be unveiled:
Today Crypto.com, the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency platform, and AEG, the world’s leading sports and live entertainment company, have launched a historic, 20-year naming rights agreement that will rename the AEG-owned and operated STAPLES Center, one of the most iconic and globally recognized sports and entertainment arenas in the world. Effective December 25, the multi-purpose arena, which hosts hundreds of annual marquee events and serves as the official home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and LA Clippers, the NHL’s LA Kings and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, will be known as Crypto.com Arena. This agreement also makes Crypto.com an official cryptocurrency platform partner of the Los Angeles Lakers and the LA Kings.
To kick off the partnership, AEG and Crypto.com will unveil the new logo and other branding assets including internal arena signage of the newly named Crypto.com Arena on Christmas Day, when the Los Angeles Lakers host the Brooklyn Nets. All of the venue’s external signage will be replaced by June 2022.
This partnership, brokered by AEG Global Partnerships, places the Crypto.com brand at the center of some of the biggest and most important sports and live entertainment moments set to take place over the course of the next two decades. It also underscores the rapidly growing influence and widespread adoption of Crypto.com’s cryptocurrency platform and NFT marketplace worldwide.
Crypto.com Co-Founder and CEO, Kris Marszalek, is excited to have his company’s name on such an iconic venue:
“Known as the Creative Capital of the World, the city of Los Angeles and the people who call it home have always been pioneers, pushing the boundaries and innovating as the undeniable global leaders of culture and entertainment. 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.”
Todd Goldstein, Chief Revenue Officer of AEG (they’re a massive sports and live entertainment company which brokered the deal) talked about the convergence of cryptocurrency, sports and entertainment:
“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. It marks an exciting new chapter in the history of our company and our respective industries, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have such a visionary partner like Crypto.com supporting our global fan base and local community.”
Dan Beckerman, President and CEO of AEG, also got a quote talking about the future along with a ‘shared vision of innovation’ in sports and entertainment:
“This partnership is about the future. AEG and Crypto.com not only share a vision about innovation and the future of sports and entertainment, but we also have a shared commitment to our communities where we work and live. We look forward to partnering with Crypto.com to create meaningful initiatives to bring that vision to life in the years to come.”
We’ve talked about Crypto.com quite a bit on this website over the past year. They signed a sponsorship deal with the NHL Montreal Canadiens, the NBA Philadelphia 76ers. the Aston Martin Formula 1 team and Italy’s Serie A soccer circuit. They’ve done a ton more in terms of sponsorship and brand building which they outline in the press release:
Crypto.com recently partnered with Matt Damon on its first global campaign to formally introduce the platform to users (watch it here). The campaign will be integrated across Crypto.com’s portfolio of global brand partnerships including UFC, F1, Paris Saint-Germain, and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, to the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens, esports team Fnatic, and Lega Serie A, the Italian Football league and Twitch Rivals. Crypto.com continues to lead the industry in sports sponsorships, as the first Official Cryptocurrency Sponsor and NFT Partner of UFC and F1®. Earlier this year, Crypto.com became the first crypto platform to partner with an F1 team, the first to partner with an NHL team (Montreal Canadiens), and the first to partner with a professional sports league (Lega Serie A).
As noted in the quote above, they recently signed A-list actor Matt Damon to be a corporate spokesman. Here’s the first promo clip:
Since we talk a lot about sponsorship and branding on this site due to all of the sportsbooks doing it this quote will sound familiar to all of you–it explains exactly what Crypto.com gets out of the deal:
As the exclusive naming rights partner, Crypto.com will engage millions of sports and entertainment fans each year through premium branded areas of the arena including a 3,300 sq. ft activation space at the building’s entrance, as well as dedicated activation areas on the main concourse of the arena and throughout the L.A. LIVE campus. Additionally, the new relationship will see Crypto.com featured prominently across the venue with large-scale, premium branding and signage throughout the interior and exterior of the facility.
The Staples Center isn’t the first major US sports venue to be rebranded with the name of a crypto company–that would be the venue formerly known as American Airlines Arena in Miami, now known as the FTX Arena. Crypto services company Voyager is also in the brand building game and recently signed a sponsorship deal with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. You’ll be seeing plenty of other crypto companies turning to sports related sponsorships to build their brands.
Great to see the Staples Center rebrand–cryptocurrency is the future and there are so many fascinating and potentially game changing projects in the space I wouldn’t know where to start listing them. I’ve been a Crypto.com customer for awhile now and really like what they do. Speaking of ‘potentially game changing products’ in the crypto space there are several that involve sports betting and we’ll be talking about these in the near future.
