In a work-from-home year where “hodl” and “to the moon” entered into the lexicon alongside two digital currencies named after Shiba Inus, we guess it only makes sense that one of the most iconic arenas in Los Angeles would also leave behind its office supplies roots and get caught up in the crypto frenzy.
As of Christmas Day, the Staples Center will be known as the Crypto.com Arena. Owner AEG announced that it has entered into a 20-year naming rights agreement for the Downtown L.A. arena with the Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform. So that means starting with the Lakers game on December 25, the space will officially be referred to as the Crypto.com Arena, with a new logo that’ll debut that same day and all of the external signage set to be replaced by June 2022.
AEG and https://t.co/mht717OBXs announce their historic naming rights partnership for one of the world’s most iconic sports and live entertainment venues formerly known as STAPLES Center. For full press release visit: https://t.co/jWHLBF7YUv pic.twitter.com/Q6OhDTIZu7
— STAPLES Center (@STAPLESCenter) November 17, 2021
The deal also dictates that Crypto.com will become an official cryptocurrency platform partner—cool—for both the Lakers and Kings. So does that mean you’ll be able to pay for your tickets and beer in Bitcoin? Though nothing’s been announced, it “may be on the horizon,” according to the L.A. Times, who also report that Crypto.com paid upwards of $700 million for the naming rights.
There’s not a whole lot else to glean from the announcement about the arena, which has been Staples-branded since its 1999 debut, other than the name change. On the sustainability front, AEG mentions that it’s committed to a greenhouse gas reduction goal, while Crypto.com notes it intends to become carbon negative by the end of 2022. (Cryptocurrencies are notoriously terrible for the environment due to the energy required to mine digital tokens—though we’re sure someone with some serious crypto gains is grumbling about how brick-and-mortar banks are worse as they read this—so it’ll certainly be interesting to see how the new name sounds in 2040.)
We imagine this comes as a pretty abrupt, odd-sounding change for Lakers, Clippers (for now), Kings and Sparks fans. But let’s not forget that the Staples Center is named after a big-box store where you buy manila envelopes and printer ink. And that aside from the classics like Dodger Stadium, the Coliseum, the Forum and the Rose Bowl, the rest of L.A.’s major stadiums and arenas are named after banks, finance companies and healthcare providers. If the name change really annoys you that much, maybe this is the perfect opportunity to hop aboard the Clippers bandwagon when they leave DTLA for Inglewood in 2024 to play at the new, uh, Intuit Dome.