MIAMI — 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 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. That deal expired Jan. 1, 2020, but the airline’s name remained on the building until 2021.
Source: www.espn.com