The End of an Era

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The Staples Center is one of the most well-known sports and entertainment venues in the U.S.

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 and Kobe Bryant, have been held at the arena.

It has been known as the Staples Center, after the office supplies company, since it first opened in 1999. The inaugural event was a Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band concert.

Well, it appears that those days are over.

Reflecting the changes in our economy, the arena will be renamed Crypto.com Arena, with Crypto.com paying $700 million over 20 years for the naming rights.

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.

Talk about trying to raise brand awareness.

I can see the nickname of the place becoming “the crypt”, with the slogan being “a place where opponents come to get buried”. The marketing people are probably excited about the possibilities.

Sources:

Image from ttec

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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54 thoughts on “The End of an Era”

  2. Even news anchors were making fun of the new name. At least it has publicity so I know where the “new” venue is. I often see concert announcements and have to google the venue because I don’t know the current name.

    In a related thought, I started watching Tron for the first time and I think the video arcade is currently The Federal Bar NoHo.

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  4. There’s a gang in LA called the Crips, and I’ll bet they’re thrilled with this name change. But I suspect that one day the bottom will fall out of all the cryptocurrencies, and this sports arena will have to crawl back to Staples, begging to be taken back.

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      3. Well, I don’t know. I sure wish I had bought some bitcoin about 20 years ago. But I’m wondering if this crypto craze is sort of like the tulip craze of the 1600s. If I owned any bitcoin, I’d be selling right now.

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  6. They should hire you for the marketing team. “The Crypt” is the ideal nickname for the stadium. I find it a little sad that corporations are taking over these stadiums and their names. For example, the San Francisco Giants used to play at Candlestick Park for over four decades. After a new stadium was built in a different location, the stadium has had four names since 2000. (Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park, AT&T Park, and Oracle Park (after a software company).

    A similar thing has happened to many college bowl games names, which now often include corporate sponsors.

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  8. “The Crypt” is a great nickname. It would appear that just about anything is available now for sponsored naming rights. In fact, for the right amount, I am willing to name my motorcycle after my sponsor. Just throwing it out there….

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  9. like Pete, it always makes me a bit sad when venues are taken over by corporate names/sponsors, though I know it comes down to dollars. one of the concert venues I went to since my teenage years, has been named dte energy theater for many years, but I can’t call it or think of it as anything else but pine knob, what it used to be

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  11. I miss the days where venues were named after something or someone significant to the area rather than a company willing to shell out the most money. Forbes Field, yes. Three Rivers Stadium. Yes. PNC Park and Heinz Field? No. It’s crass. The venues might be nicer, but the names sicken me. Must everything be commercialized?

    I love your marketing concept for the Crypt. I will always think of that when I hear the long version of the new name.

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  18. As a native Angeleno and Lakers fan, I can barely accept the fact they now play at the Stapes Center instead of the
    Fabulous Forum! Or that the San Diego Chargers AND the L.A. Rams both play in SoFi Stadium in Inglewood (also home of the Fabulous Forum). For me the Rams were never the St. Louis Rams though the Oakland Raiders were more properly the L.A. Raiders who may eventually become the Las Vegas Raiders to me. That transition is probably much easier for me to make just based on geographical proximity. BTW, what is the name of the stadium the LV Raiders play in? I know it’s also a corporate name and none of that type will ever compare with Fabulous!

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