Today marked the final day of the Staples Center as it will now switch to its new sponsor, Crypto.com.
The arena, built-in 1999, will now be known as the Crypto.com Arena after the company purchased the rights to the building for more than $700 million for naming rights, according to sources familiar with the terms, making the deal one of the biggest in sports history.
In a report from ABC LA, you can see the cranes taking down letter by letter the former name of the iconic sporting venue and being carted off. No matter the number of funny crip jokes that will be told, it is truly an end of an era.
A person with knowledge of the deal tells The Associated Press that Crypto.com is paying $700 million over 20 years to rename the building. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the parties aren’t publicly announcing the terms of what’s believed to be the richest naming rights deal in sports history.
Since it first opened in 1999, the venue has been known as Staples Center.
The arena is home to the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers, the NHL’s Kings and the WNBA’s Sparks. Nineteen Grammy Award ceremonies have been held at the venue and it regularly hosts concerts from chart-topping music artists.
Several high-profile events, including memorials for Michael Jackson, Nipsey Hussle and Kobe Bryant, have been held at the arena.
Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency platform and exchange headquartered in Singapore. Founded in 2016, Crypto.com has been on a spending spree across the global sports landscape over the past year. The platform has inked high-visibility sponsorship deals with Formula One, the UFC, Italy’s Serie A, Paris St-Germain and the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens – while also purchasing the Philadelphia 76ers’ uniform sponsorship patch.
At least for a while, most people will still call it Staples.
Flip the page to watch the video of the sign coming off the arena.