Heat rename home arena temporarily in wake of FTX collapse

The home of the Miami Heat has yet another name: Miami-Dade Arena.

That will be the temporary moniker for the building where the NBA team plays its home games, while the search for a more permanent naming-rights partner commences.

The Heat and Miami-Dade County announced the new name Friday, two days after a bankruptcy court terminated the county’s naming rights deal with collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. A county official had said earlier in the week that it would be referred to as “the Arena,” though those plans quickly changed.

“Effective immediately, Miami-Dade County and the Miami Heat have agreed that, until such time as there is a new naming rights partner, to refer to the arena as Miami-Dade Arena,” the parties said in a joint statement. “The removal of the facility’s existing signage and the changeover of branding elements will be ongoing in the coming weeks.”

The process of removing FTX branding from all aspects of the arena will take some time. The company’s logo appears on the court, is on many of the entrances, is embroidered on the shirts many security and in-game personnel wear, is on the arena roof and even was placed on the swipe cards that employees use to access the facility.

The county asked for the naming rights deal to be terminated in November, saying at the time that continuing to refer to the building as FTX Arena will only add to the “enduring hardships” brought on by the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.

The county owns the arena and negotiated what was to be a 19-year, $135 million naming rights deal with FTX. The Heat — who have played in the building since Jan. 2, 2000 — were to receive $2 million annually as part of that deal, which went into effect in June 2021. The county and the Heat say they will work together to find a new naming partner.

Before the FTX deal, the building had been referred to as AmericanAirlines Arena since its opening in 1999. The airline giant, which has a hub in Miami, said in 2019 that it would not renew its deal past the expiration date of Jan. 1, 2020. The airline’s name remained on the building until 2021.

FTX was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, though it ended up with billions of dollars’ worth of losses — estimates range from $8 billion to $10 billion — before seeking bankruptcy protection after a spectacular crash that took only a few days.

Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested last month in the Bahamas and extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges in what U.S. Attorney Damian Williams has called “one of the biggest frauds in American history.” Bankman-Fried has been released on bail and is scheduled to go on trial in October. He has pleaded not guilty.

Heat’s home arena to get new name after FTX collapse

The arena where the Miami Heat play will soon have a new name, after the team and Miami-Dade County decided Friday to terminate their relationship with FTX on the same day the cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy.

The building had been called FTX Arena since June 2021, and a 19-year, $135 million sponsorship agreement between FTX and the county was just getting started.

In a joint statement Friday night, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and the Heat said the news regarding FTX was “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 read.

FTX entered into a number of sports-related deals, including with Mercedes for Formula One racing and a sponsorship deal with Major League Baseball — whose umpires wear the company’s logo. Earlier Friday, Mercedes said it would immediately remove FTX logos from its Formula One cars.

Some of the top athletes in the world also had FTX deals, including Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.

Miami-Dade County, which owns the arena and negotiated the naming rights deal, struck the agreement with FTX in March 2021. The name of the building changed from AmericanAirlines Arena to FTX Arena three months later.

The Heat were to receive $2 million a year as part of the deal. Most of the rest — roughly $90 million over the lifetime of the agreement — was to be paid to the county, the vast majority of it earmarked toward fighting gun violence and poverty.

FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, ending a disastrous few days for what had been the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world when the week began. The company’s CEO and founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, has resigned.

The embattled cryptocurrency exchange, short billions of dollars, sought bankruptcy protection after the exchange experienced the crypto equivalent of a bank run.