‘FTX Arena’ is dead. So what do we call where the Heat plays now? There’s an answer
The FTX Arena era officially ended Wednesday when Miami-Dade County won a court order striking its 2021 agreement with the disgraced and bankrupt crypto exchange. Let the era of “the Arena” begin.
That’s the name the county says will be the placeholder title for the county-owned arena while Miami-Dade seeks a replacement for FTX to spend millions to put its name on the downtown venue that the Miami Heat manages.
“It’s going to be referred to as ‘the Arena’,” said Natalia Jaramillo, deputy communications director for Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “With a capital A.”
READ MORE: Miami’s star turn in the crypto boom now has an iconic bust: the Heat’s FTX Arena
In March 2021, FTX became the second naming-rights sponsor in the arena’s 23-year history when then-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried agreed to a $135 million, 19-year deal with Miami-Dade to replace American Airlines as the facility’s sponsor.
At the time, Bankman-Fried, was riding the crypto wave to fame as a 29-year-old founder of a company with a reported market value approaching $25 billion. Miami-Dade signed what was then the NBA’s first deal with a crypto arena sponsor, capping Miami’s star turn as a magnet for moguls leading and chasing the boom in interest for digital currencies.
Now Bankman-Fried is out of federal custody on a $250 million bond while awaiting trial on fraud charges, accused of using FTX customers’ dollars to fund other investments and personal expenses. FTX is in bankruptcy, with new corporate leadership. And Miami-Dade and the Heat went from celebrating the FTX deal in 2021 to issuing joint statements last fall condemning the allegations against Bankman-Fried and vowing to end the naming-rights agreement as quickly as they could.
The end came by court order on Wednesday in U.S. bankruptcy in court in New York, when Judge John Dorsey agreed to a deal between Miami-Dade and FTX’s new leadership to terminate the arena deal immediately. Language requires Miami-Dade to come up with a new title for the facility immediately since the order states the county shall “cease referring to the arena by the Arena Name in all public references on a going forward basis.”
As for when the Arena will lose its FTX trappings — including logos on the roof and on the Heat court — a source familiar with the planning said don’t expect big changes soon. The Heat is still in its regular season, making court alterations challenging, and removing the rooftop structure isn’t a quick process.
Wednesday’s order may not end the court fights over the 2021 arena deal. FTX paid $20 million from the original agreement, and the 2023 rent of $5.5 million was due Jan. 1. The Dorsey order ended the agreement retroactively to Dec. 31, 2022, but states the parties are free to litigate over other disputes involving the terms of the contract.
Miami-Dade claims FTX defaulted on the original deal by violating a term in the contract requiring compliance with federal laws, triggering a penalty of three years’ worth of rent.
This story was originally published January 11, 2023 at 4:19 PM.