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Clippings: STAPLES Center will reportedly be renamed Crypto.com Arena

The new name will be christened on Christmas Day.

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Oklahoma City Thunder v Los Angeles Clippers Photo by Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images

The Clippers are moving to the Intuit Dome in three years, but before then, they’ll be playing in another new arena — or at least one with a new name.

STAPLES Center, which was inaugurated in 1999 and retained its original identity since, will be no more as of Christmas Day. The building will henceforth be known as Crypto.com Arena, per numerous reports, part of a 20-year naming rights deal.

Staples previously had permanent naming rights for the home of the Clippers, Kings, Lakers, and Sparks after originally negotiating a 20-year deal valued at $120 million in 1999. Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns STAPLES Center, reportedly received more than $700 million from Crypto.com, a Singapore-based crypto exchange and mobile wallet provider. Per Axios, here is how that valuation compares with other stadiums in the area:

For context, SoFi paid over $600 million for 20-year naming rights to the new NFL stadium in Los Angeles, where the Chargers and Rams play, while Intuit paid over $500 million for 23-year naming rights to a new arena that will house the Los Angeles Clippers.

This will be the second building in the NBA to be named after a crypto exchange, as American Airlines Arena in Miami rebranded to the FTX Arena this offseason.

The Clippers will play their first game in the newly named building on Dec. 26 against the Denver Nuggets.

As a lifelong L.A. resident and sports fan, it feels immeasurably strange to think about the end of STAPLES Center. Paul George felt the same way, saying postgame, “It’d be weird. I grew up, this being STAPLES, and STAPLES being the place to play and the place to be. It’ll definitely be weird. It’s just, it’s the same location, but it’s kind of like just stripping the history here by calling it something else.... Good thing we won’t be here too long, so, we’ll be at our own place. So it is what it is, I guess.”

Like George said, it is what it is. Building names change all the time; that was one sponsorship deal, and this is another, and the Clippers are on their way out anyways.

So long, Staples. Here’s hoping for even better moments in the building’s next iteration.

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