Giannis Antetokounmpo # 34 of the Milwaukee Bucks leads the basket against Bam Adebayo # 13 of the Miami Heat in the second half at the American Airlines Arena on March 2, 2020 in Miami, Florida.
Michael Reaves | Getty Images
A city trying to become the center of the crypto world could soon have a cryptocurrency exchange at its NBA franchise stadium.
FTX won the naming rights for the entertainment venue now known as the American Airlines Arena, home to the Miami Heat. The deal, approved Friday by the Miami-Dade County Council of Commissioners, is worth $ 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 history, sometimes in checkers, of companies with stadium naming rights. Some brands are becoming synonymous with their franchises, such as Gillette and the New England Patriots or Staples Center and the Los Angeles Lakers.
However, for other companies, the naming rights served as billboards that reminded the public of their struggles. The sports authority had to pay bail for sponsoring the NFL’s Broncos Stadium after it went bankrupt in 2016.
Famously, Enron had the rights to the MLB stadium in Houston Astros before an accounting scandal toppled the company. And in Oklahoma City, the Chesapeake Energy brand is still in the basketball arena for the Thunder NBA, even after the company filed for bankruptcy protection last year.
The dot-com era two decades ago offers even more fodder for the wrong naming rights. Technology company CMGI was the initial sponsor of what would become Gillette Stadium, but had to reduce the deal after storing the stock, according to a then-CNN report. The late 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 over the past year to make the company a welcoming environment for technology and crypto companies. Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami, told CNBC last month that Miami “positions itself as one of America’s friendliest cities” and announced that city employees 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 funds in the agreement could be used for initiatives to reduce poverty and armed violence. Several commissioners, including Rebeca Sosa, have expressed concern about granting the rights to a young company with a limited presence in the United States, but the agreement was passed by an overwhelming majority.
FTX is an international cryptocurrency exchange that does not operate in the US and has more products than its US counterpart, FTX. Bankman-Fried said the two are separate companies and he is the majority shareholder in both.
The Miami Heat was one of the most successful NBA franchises in recent years, appearing in 5 NBA Finals in 2010 and winning two titles.