"American Airlines Arena" is about to become history! FTX only one step away from naming rights for the Heat's arena

According to a report by the Miami Herald, cryptocurrency exchange FTX is close to securing the naming rights for the home arena of the Miami Heat.

FTX Acquires Stadium Naming Rights

In the past few weeks, FTX has reached a $135 million, 19-year stadium naming deal with the NBA's Miami Heat for their home arena. Reportedly, $90 million of the deal will be paid to the Miami-Dade County government, with the remaining funds being paid to the Miami Heat at a rate of $2 million per year.

However, the deal is still subject to approval by Miami-Dade County officials, with the earliest announcement of the final result expected on Friday. Once approved, the arena will be officially renamed from its current name of "American Airlines Arena," which has been in use for nearly 20 years, to "FTX Arena." FTX founder Sam stated in the press release:

"The entire FTX team is thrilled to partner with Miami-Dade County and the Heat. This partnership is about more than putting our name on a landmark building. It's an opportunity to provide value to the continually developing, diverse community of Miami and its surrounding cities, and to be a part of a champion community, champion organization, and champion culture."

Cryptocurrency and the NBA

With the rise of the NFT concept into the spotlight, discussions surrounding cryptocurrency and the NBA have been increasing. Particularly, digital collectibles like NBA Top Shot are rapidly expanding to fans and collectors outside of the crypto community, with investors spending over $230 million on the platform as of the end of February.

At the same time, the frequency of appearances by players and even team owners in the cryptocurrency space is growing. According to previous reports, NBA star JaVale McGee referred to Bitcoin as the future in December last year; and players such as Spencer Dinwiddie of the Nets, Andre Iguodala of the Heat, JaVale McGee of the Lakers, and former Magic dunk contest runner-up Aaron Gordon, among others, even invested in FLOW, a blockchain by CryptoKitties developer Dapper Labs, last year.

Furthermore, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been particularly active in adopting cryptocurrencies, recently showing strong support for NFTs and adding Dogecoin to the payment options supported by the team.