‘This Feels Gross’: Staples Center Will Be Renamed ‘Crypto.com Arena’ Until 2041
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The home of the Los Angeles Lakers, the Staples Center, will be known as the Crypto.com Arena until the end of 2041. The arena said in a statement released late Tuesday in Los Angeles that the 20-year naming deal will go into effect on Christmas Day and all of the signage around the stadium will be replaced by the start of next summer. The statement didn’t say how much Crypto.com—a cryptocurrency platform set up in Singapore in 2016—has paid for the stadium naming rights. The news got a frosty reception from Vanessa Bryant, the widow of Lakers legend Kobe, who posted on Instagram that the stadium will be “forever known as ‘The House That Kobe Built.’” Sports commentator and former NFL star George Wrighster III wrote: “This feels gross. The Staples Center.”