Staples Center in Los Angeles is renamed Crypto.com Arena

The Staples Center in Los Angeles, one of the best-known sports and entertainment arenas in the United States, renamed Crypto.com Arena, the first such name change since the event was opened with 20,000 seats in 1999.

The cryptocurrency platform based in Singapore has agreed to pay more than $ 700 million for the name rights in the complex in the city center of Los Angeles for the next 20 years, according to the persons familiar with the transaction. The renaming comes into force on the first Christmas holiday, whereby the physical signage is expected to change until June 2022.

The deal, the owner and operator of the arena, not only secures a big win, but also marks one of the most striking marketing tricks of a cryptocurrency company to this day and comes because digital coins are more popular with private investors.

The arena houses four professional sports franchises-basketballs of Lakers, Clipper and Sparks and ice hockey Kings-and, along with the Madison Square Garden in New York, is one of the most popular concert sites in the USA.

Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, said: "In a few years, people will look back on this day and think, ok, this is the moment when cryptocurrencies have crossed the cosmos into the mainstream."

When asked whether the company is planning to pay AEG for the name rights with cryptocurrency, said Marszalek: "No, we will not, it is just a direct cash deal."

he added: "I could change the idea of the idea of the idea [the name], which I think is very natural. But we are ready to work with the local community and to prove that this is a change in the better and help to build a better future for LA and the fans.

As a marketing product, the name rights for stadiums in the USA have a mixed balance, with the titles of some urban sports and entertainment facilities becoming a synonym for bankruptcy, takeovers or scandals. Examples of the so -called “stadium curse” are the former Enron Field in Houston and the Sports Authority Field in Denver, which was named after the now dissolved sporting goods dealer.

Staples, the privatized retailer for office supplies based in Massachusetts in 2017, has been the title sponsor of the Los Angeles Arena since the opening. In 1999, the retailer paid $ 120 million rights for 20 years. Half of the duration of the deal, Staples paid a non -mentioned flat rate to keep these rights in the long run.

AEG, which also owns and operates the O2 Arena in London and the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, according to Todd Goldstein, Chief Revenue Officer, finally decided at the beginning of 2019 to buy the lifelong rights of Staples.

He said that the name Staples is getting old and that AEG is looking for a new branding partner who "can influence the next generation of fans in the next two decades".

When choosing a cryptocurrency sponsor "we think that there is a future and we believe that this industry is needed," he added.

crypto.com was founded in 2016 and is the tenth largest stock exchange for spot cryptocurrency transactions worldwide. In the last 24 hours, the volume amounted to around $ 1.8 billion compared to more than $ 40 billion on the largest stock exchange Binance.

Sportsponsoring has become a popular marketing tool for crypto platforms in retail. The Italian Serie-A-Clubs AC Milan and Lazio signed partnerships with the crypto companies Bitmex or Binance this year, while the Major League baseball agreed to make FTX their official cryptocurrency exchange.

crypto.com has existing sponsorships with Ultimate Fighting Championship, the football club Paris Saint-Germain and the Philadelphia 76ers of the basketball.

Additional reporting of Eva Szalay in London