LA Lakers home Staples Center to be renamed Crypto.com Arena in lucrative rights deal

This change will require some getting used to. 

Staples Center will be going by a new name, Crypto.com Arena, starting Dec. 25 after a 20-year naming rights agreement with the famous Los Angeles building, which opened in 1999, expired. Sports and entertainment conglomerate AEG, the owner and operator of the arena, and the cryptocurrency exchange made the announcement Tuesday.

It is the home of the NBA's Lakers and Clippers (although the Clippers will be moving to their own arena in Inglewood, California, in 2024), the NHL's Kings, the WNBA's Sparks and has hosted many entertainment events, such as the Grammy Awards. 

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Crypto.com, which has headquarters in Singapore, has existed since 2016 as a cryptocurrency exchange platform and online wallet for consumers. The company, along with other cryptocurrencies, have flooded the sports space in recent years. Crypto.com already has sponsorship deals in place with Formula 1 racing and is the jersey patch sponsor for the Philadelphia 76ers.

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The Los Angeles Times reported the deal is worth $700 million to rename the building. 

The change immediately drew strong reaction online, with NBA players such as southern California native Paul George expressing a level of animosity. 

"It's kind of like just stripping the history here by calling it something else," he said. 

On Instagram, Vanessa Bryant said Staples will be "Forever known as 'The House that Kobe Built'" in reference to her late husband and NBA legend who died in a helicopter crash Jan. 26, 2020.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.