The Boston Bruins will head west to face the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 28, but they won’t be playing the Kings at the iconic Staples Center.
The venue will be renamed to Crypto.com Arena on Dec. 25, according to Sam Dean of the Los Angeles Times.
The venue in downtown Los Angeles, which is home to the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers, NHL’s Kings and WNBA’s Sparks, is at the center of one of the largest naming rights deals in sports history, with Crypto.com and AEG — the owner of the arena — signing on to a 20-year deal worth more than $700 million, according to Dean.
The renaming process will begin Dec. 25 with a new logo and all of the signage will be replaced by June 2022.
“In the next few years, people will look back at this moment as the moment when crypto crossed into the mainstream,” Crypto.com chief executive Kris Marszalek told Dean.
The venue has been named after office supply company Staples since its opening in 1999. After an initial 10-year deal, the sides signed an ongoing deal, but AEG repurchased the naming rights in 2019, according to Dean.
According to Dean, the Staples Center deal may extend beyond naming rights to include the opportunity to make purchases in crypto.
