The Heat and Miami-Dade County unveiled a new name for the basketball team’s arena on Friday as the organization continues to deal with the fallout of dropping its naming rights partner in November.
Effective immediately, the downtown Miami venue, formerly known as FTX Arena, will now be temporarily known as Miami-Dade Arena “until such time as there is a new naming rights partner,” the team announced in a statement. The Heat and Miami-Dade County have spent the last few months working on a resolution for the arena after former naming-rights holder and failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.
Miami-Dade County and FTX previously agreed to a 19-year, $135 million contract for naming rights of the facility in March 2021 that went into effect in June of that year. The partnership included the installment of the FTX logo on the roof of the venue and in various areas of the arena.
“The removal of the facility’s existing signage and the changeover of branding elements will be ongoing in the coming weeks,” the Heat noted in the statement.
The move comes on the heels of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey ruling on Wednesday to terminate the business relationship between FTX and Miami-Dade County on behalf of a request by the county to have FTX’s name stripped from the stadium in wake of its collapse. At the time of the request in November, Miami-Dade officials said that continuing to refer to the building as FTX Arena would add to the “enduring hardships” brought on by the collapse, per the Associated Press.
In addition to its affiliation with the Heat, FTX also landed endorsement deals with the likes of Tom Brady and Stephen Curry, as well as MLB and Mercedes’s Formula One team. The Silver Arrows, though, reportedly suspended the sponsorship deal in November. Upon filing for bankruptcy, CNN reported that FTX had approximately $10 billion to $50 billion in liabilities and assets.
