Giannis Antetokounmpo # 34 of the Milwaukee Bucks goes into the basket against Bam Adebayo # 13 of the Miami Heat during the second half at the American Airlines Arena on March 2, 2020 in Miami, Florida.
Michael Reaves | Getty Images
A city trying to rename itself as the center of the cryptographic world may soon have a cryptocurrency purse emblazoned in the stadium of its NBA franchise.
FTX won the name rights for the entertainment venue now known as the American Airlines Arena, home of the Miami Heat. The deal, approved by the Miami-Dade County Commissioners Council on Friday, is $ 135 million over 19 years.
The NBA has yet to approve the deal before it becomes official, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said in an email. The NBA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Heat declined to comment.
The company now joins a long and sometimes complicated history of companies with stadium naming rights. Some brands have become synonymous with their franchises, such as Gillette and New England Patriots or Staples Center and Los Angeles Lakers.
For other companies, however, naming rights served as billboards that reminded the public of their struggles. The Sports Authority was forced to pay the sponsorship of the NFL’s Broncos stadium after its bankruptcy in 2016.
Enron was famous for the rights to MLB’s Houston Astros stadium before an accounting scandal brought the company down. And in Oklahoma City, the Chesapeake Energy brand is still in the basketball arena for the NBA’s Thunder, even after the company filed for bankruptcy last year.
The dot-com era, two decades ago, provides even more material for the naming rights that went wrong. The technology company CMGI was the original sponsor of what would become Gillette Stadium, but had to reduce the deal after its shares plummeted, according to a CNN report at the time. The now defunct companies Adelphia and PSINet also had NFL stadium naming rights near the turn of the century.
Politicians and business leaders in the Miami region have worked in the past year to make the company a welcoming environment for technology and crypto companies. Francis Suarez, the mayor of the city of Miami, told CNBC last month that Miami is “positioning us as one of America’s most technology-friendly cities” and announced that city officials can choose to be paid in bitcoin .
Many of the commissioners and Daniella Levine Cava, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, praised the agreement that the deal’s funds could be used in initiatives to reduce poverty and armed violence. Some of the commissioners, including Rebeca Sosa, raised concerns about granting rights to a young company with limited presence in the United States, but the deal was approved by an overwhelming majority.
FTX is an international cryptocurrency exchange that does not operate in the United States and has more products than its counterpart, FTX US. Bankman-Fried said the two are separate companies and he is the majority shareholder in both.
The Miami Heat has been one of the most successful NBA franchises in recent years, appearing in 5 NBA finals since 2010 and winning two titles.