Miami Heat to 'look for new naming rights partner' after FTX Arena sponsorship deal is terminated by judge
Miami-Dade County and the disgraced crypto company had a 19-year, $135 million sponsorship agreement
By
Chris Bengel
•
1 min read
A federal bankruptcy judge ruled on Wednesday that the naming-rights agreement between Miami-Dade County and the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has been terminated. The dissolution of the agreement ends a two-year partnership in which the Miami Heat were playing in FTX Arena.
According to the order, Miami-Dade County will immediately stop using FTX branding and remove all mentions of the FTX brand from the Heat's home arena.
"When the news first broke about FTX several weeks ago, Miami-Dade County took immediate legal action to terminate our business relationship with FTX," the Heat said in a statement on Thursday. "On January 11th, our motion to lift the automatic stay of the FTX's bankruptcy proceedings to terminate the original naming rights agreements in its entirety was approved."
"Miami-made County and the Miami Heat will now work aggressively to identify a new naming rights 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."
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) January 12, 2023
In November 2022, Miami-Dade County and the Heat expressed their desire to end their deal with FTX, which was signed back in 2021. This came after former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in December 2022 on several federal criminal charges, including wire fraud and money laundering, after FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022.
FTX's new corporate leadership group made a similar request with the court as they asked the sponsorship deal to be ended retroactively dating back to Dec. 31, 2022. On Wednesday, Judge John Dorsey approved the termination of the deal between FTX and Miami-Dade County.
On Nov. 22, 2022, Miami-Dade County petitioned a federal bankruptcy court to immediately terminate its naming-right agreements with FTX and remove its branding from the Heat's arena. The two sides had agreed to a 19-year, $135 million sponsorship deal back in June 2021 and FTX's branding was on the court as well as throughout the arena.
FTX was scheduled to make its next payment to Miami-Dade County on Jan. 1, 2023. In addition, the Heat were set to receive $2 million annually from FTX as part of the agreement.
