Lakers To Play Final Game In 'Staples Center' Before Rebranding To Crypto Arena
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – After two decades of calling Staples Center home, the Lakers will play their final game there Thursday night before it undergoes its official name change to Crypto.com Arena on Christmas Day.
The Lakers will host the San Antonio Spurs, and they plan a number of sendoff festivities for their finale under the Staples banner.
They include:
- A special opening video to be played prior to tip-off.
- Fans in attendance receiving a commemorative ticket, as well as a T- shirt that's a replica of the first T-shirt given away at Staples Center in June 2000, when the Lakers won the NBA's Western Conference.
- Several Lakers legends appearing for a halftime celebration featuring past NBA championship trophies.
- A banner marking 22 years of Lakers history at Staples Center being featured along the top of arena's City View Terrace.
The Lakers are slated to host the Brooklyn Nets at Crypto.com Arena on Christmas Day, but that game is at risk of being postponed because of a coronavirus outbreak among the Nets roster. The Nets game against the Blazers scheduled for Thursday night in Portland had to be postponed because the team could not field a league-minimum eight players.
It was the third straight Nets game that was postponed.
As of Thursday morning, the Christmas Day game was still a go.
The Lakers' next scheduled home game after that is on New Year's Eve against the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Clippers, who also call the arena home, are scheduled to host the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.
The NHL's Los Angeles Kings, another tenant of the arena, are scheduled to host the Las Vegas Golden Knights at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday.
Last month it was announced that Staples Center, which first opened in 1999, would be renamed to Crypto.com Arena in the largest naming rights deal ever, at $700 million over 20 years. Staples Center is owned by AEG.
A new logo and other branding assets, including internal arena signage, will be introduced on Christmas Day if the game is played as planned. All of the venue's external signage will be replaced by June.
The agreement includes official designations across Crypto.com Arena, L.A. LIVE, Microsoft Theater, The Novo, the Lakers and the Kings.
The agreement also makes Crypto.com an official cryptocurrency platform partner of the Lakers and Kings.
Crypto.com claims to have more than 10 million customers. Its headquarters are in Singapore, and it employs more than 2,600 people in offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
The company was founded in 2016. Crypto.com also has sponsorships with the UFC, the Formula One auto racing circuit, Italian soccer's Serie A, the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and NHL's Montreal Canadiens.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)