The Los Angeles Lakers were set to play the Brooklyn Nets in the Staples Center on Christmas day; however, the arena is getting an unexpected name change. The game will now be taking place in Cryto.com Arena. Well renowned NBA Insider, Shams Charania, broke the news on Twitter late last night.
Staples Center – the iconic home of the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers among others since 1999 – will have a new name beginning Dec. 25: https://t.co/lur8Hbuv0r Arena. It’s believed to be the largest U.S. venue naming rights deal to date.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 17, 2021
As well known as Shams is in the NBA community, the Staples Center is renowned not only in sports, but in American pop culture, as one of the most prestigious venues. The Staples Center is currently home to the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, Sparks, and Kings. The Lakers have won six NBA championships in the building while the Sparks and Kings have added three WNBA and two NHL titles of their own. The Staples Center has also hosted 19 Grammy Awards ceremonies and memorials for the likes of Michael Jackson and Kobe Bryant as well as hosting countless other concerts and public events.
The name change is corresponding with AEG’s new partnership with Crypto.com. The arena has been known as Staples Center for all 22 years of its existence. In 2009, Staples bought the naming rights to the arena in perpetuity, but AEG reacquired the naming rights in 2019. While the official details of the agreement have not been released, multiple reports suggest Cryto.com gave AEG $700 million reasons why they should change the name. If these reports are accurate, this is the largest naming rights deal for a stadium in American sports to date beating out Sofi’s $600 million deal to name Los Angeles’ new football stadium. More details on the agreement can be found on AEG’s website.
This is not the first venture Crypto.com has made into the sports world as they have recently struck deals with Formula One, the UFC, Italy’s Serie A, Paris St-Germain, and the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. They also purchased the uniform sponsor patch for the 76ers, Philadelphia’s NBA team.
When asked after his game last night, Paul George of the LA Clippers admitted that the name change would be weird.
Paul George reacts to Staples Center's name change: "It'll be weird. I grew up with Staples Center being the place to play… It's kind of stripping history here… Good thing we won't be here too long." pic.twitter.com/Cl5Uyi5fZT
— Farbod Esnaashari (@Farbod_E) November 17, 2021
Paul George isn’t alone. Many sports fans rushed to social media after the news broke. In less than 12 hours, the search term “Staples Center” has amassed nearly 107,000 mentions across social media platforms. Not so shockingly, 63.7% of these posts have scored a negative sentiment as fans express their shock and disdain for the name change.
Using Sprinklr’s sentiment analysis, we can take a look at some of the top words in these negative mentions. Along with a few expletives, we see words such as worst, bad, hate, and stupid as well as the acronyms smh and wtf. It’s pretty clear that fans aren’t vibing with the new name.
Here are some of the fans’ stances on the name change.
it’ll always be called Staples Center idc
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) November 17, 2021
https://twitter.com/AdrienneLaw/status/1460844782826098690
Imagine paying $700+ million for naming rights to an arena that will always be called Staples Center. https://t.co/5bUvom0Eli
— Matthew Moreno (@Matthew__Moreno) November 17, 2021
news: staples center to be renamed crypto dot com arena
los angeles: pic.twitter.com/d9esP8WZ6A
— Indy (@IndecisiveJones) November 17, 2021
Crypto.com may have their name on the arena starting on December 25, but I doubt many LA fans will ever refer to the stadium as anything other than Staples Center.
Author: Jacob Luksik
