The Heat will have a new arena name in the near future. On Friday, the Heat and Miami-Dade County, which owns the Heat’s arena, announced (via Twitter) that they are severing ties with cryptocurrency giant FTX after the company filed for bankruptcy.
“The reports about FTX and its affiliates are extremely disappointing. Miami-Dade County and the Miami Heat are immediately taking action to terminate our business relationships with FTX, and we will be working together to find a new naming rights partner for the arena,” the statement reads.
As Ken Sweet of The Associated Press writes, FTX CEO and Founder Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned from his post. His estimated net worth was recently listed at $23 billion, but it “has all but evaporated.”
According to Eben Novy-Williams and Jacob Feldman of Sportico (subscription required), FTX’s 19-year, $135MM naming rights deal with Miami-Dade County was shaky from the beginning. The entire process came about very quickly, with county commissioners reportedly only given 16 hours to review “voluminous pages of background, contract, and other materials.” All but one commissioner ultimately approved the deal last March.
Sportico’s duo takes a deep dive into how the naming rights deal was reached, its appeal to the county ($14MM upfront, above-market value on an annual basis, nearly $90MM to address gun-related violence), and why it’s difficult to vet companies that are so new and volatile.
FTX also has several other sponsorship deals across multiple sports, including with Warriors guard Stephen Curry, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Obviously, all of those deals are now in jeopardy.
Bang bros center
Lmaoo I forgot about that
BBC? They better think long and hard about this one.
Long and hard. I see what you did there.
Common crypto L
Don’t MLB umpires have FTX patches on their uniforms?
Yep
That escalated quickly
which should have been expected when they only had 16 hours to look over the contract details. Clearly, FTX was probably trying to hide something.
Only Fans arena
Crypto, NFT’s getting exposed for what they are …… nothing.
Crypto is nothing??? Crypto just ushered in the new era of “digital money”. Bills and Coins will be gone in less than 3 years. The Government is gonna do a name change. CBDC, in other words Central Bank Digital Currency. Yes, issued by the Fed.
NFT is nothing???? NFT has layed the groundwork for “digital ownership” of just about everything. A house in Tampa was sold as an NFT. In the coming years, this will become the norm.
I think blockchain technology is here to stay. Tracking $ is not a bad idea if you want to stamp out the black market. Crypto & NFT’s will evolve from what they are currently into something else, better, more transparent, and user friendly.
I absolutely agree!
@Very Barry …… yes, crypto is nothing. Blockchain is another thing altogether.
As for NFT’s, how’s that monkey art working out for people.