The Lakers and Clippers will not be playing in the Staples Center by the time the calendar turns to 2022. The company is giving up the lifetime naming rights deal it had with the Los Angeles arena. Crypto.com will take over as the name sponsor.
Dan Patrick welcomed Darren Rovell to his radio show on Wednesday to discuss the value of the deal. Monetarily, the price tag is $700 million. That will get Crypto.com the naming rights to the arena for twenty years.
Patrick wanted to know how the company could ensure it got its money’s worth. He admitted that when he was at ESPN, he would make a point to stand in the way of that.
“I know when I did SportsCenter, I purposely did not mention a stadium that had naming rights,” he said. “I just said ‘let’s go to Baltimore,’ ‘let’s go to Chicago,’ wherever it might be.”
Would such a practice fly now at ESPN where several segments of SportsCenter carry their own corporate sponsorships?
Rovell answered Dan Patrick by saying value is somewhat relative. Crypto.com may have ideas beyond ESPN anchors saying the company’s name during broadcasts to get the most out of its $700 million investment.
“You know what? I think it’s always up to the individual company to make the value work, right?” he said. “Like, so are they going to have like ATMs where you put in your dollars and then you get a receipt that you’ve turned it into Bitcoin? Are they going to incorporate points into what the Etherium and Bitcoin price is?”
Dan Patrick had an idea for a different sponsor that he wanted to see get the naming rights. He thought the ideal sponsor for the arena would have been TNT broadcaster and Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal, who has become a real advertising force since leaving his playing days behind.
“I thought Shaq should have gotten involved and called it ‘The Shaq.’ People would have had fun with that,” the recent inductee into the Radio Hall of Fame joked.
