FTX Arena is officially no more. The Miami HEAT announced on Thursday that a federal judge has terminated the naming rights agreement between the team, Miami-Dade County and the bankrupt cryptocurrency company founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.
“When the news first broke about FTX several weeks ago, Miami-Dade County took immediate legal action to terminate our business relationship with FTX. On January 11th, our motion to lift the automatic stay of the FTX's bankruptcy proceedings to terminate the original naming rights agreement in its entirety was approved,” the HEAT and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a joint statement.
“Miami-Dade County and the Miami HEAT will now work aggressively to identify a new naming right partner for the arena. We remain proud of the impact our Peace & Prosperity Plan — sponsored by County Commissioner Keon Hardemon and funded through the original deal — is already having in preventing violence and creating opportunity for young people across Miami-Dade. We look forward to identifying a new partner to continue funding these and other new critical programs in the years ahead.”
The county, which owns the arena, originally asked for its naming rights deal with FTX to be terminated in November, shortly after the company filed for bankruptcy. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on December 12th, the same day he was charged with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering by the court for the Southern District of New York.
Miami-Dade, the Heat and FTX agreed to a 19-year, $135 million naming rights deal which went into effect in June 2021.
Longtime Heat play-by-play announcer Eric Reid has long referred to the team's home arena as “the Heat's house.” Officially, however, the placeholder title for the venue at 601 Biscayne Boulevard will simply be “the Arena.”
“It’s going to be referred to as ‘the Arena',” Natalie Jaramillo, said Natalia Jaramillo, deputy communications director for the mayor, told the Miami Herald. “With a capital A.”
The Heat, still missing multiple starters, host the Milwaukee Bucks at the Arena on Thursday night.
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