Staples Center, the home arena of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, the NHL‘s Kings and WNBA’s Sparks, will be renamed on Dec. 25, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Starting on Christmas, it will be called Crypto.com Arena. The price for the name change will be more than $700 million over the next 20 years, according to Sam Dean of the Los Angeles Times.
Staples Center has had only one name since it opened in 1999, and it has become one of the most iconic arenas in American sports in that brief period. It has hosted a total of eight championship teams: two coming from the Kings (2012 and 2014) and six from the Lakers (2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010 and 2020, though the latter concluded in the Orlando bubble). The Grammy Awards have been held there since the arena opened, and it is slated for a big role in the 2028 Olympics. Understandably, this has made the arena’s naming rights incredibly valuable. Now, they will belong to Crypto.com.
As a long-term proposition, there is one important note to remember here. The Clippers are building their own arena in Inglewood, and that will therefore deprive the new Crypto.com of a tenant. Most importantly, though, the Lakers recently renewed their lease through the 2041 season. That will ensure that the arena still has its most important tenant for the next two decades.
That is likely what helped AEG, owners of the new Crypto.com arena, fetch such a reportedly hefty price. The Lakers are the NBA‘s marquee franchise, and now, Crypto.com will be prominently featured in all of their home games.
