Miami Heat Arena Renamed Kaseya Center Following FTX Collapse

The NBA team, the Miami Heat, has a new home. Well, technically, it is the same building but with a new name.

The home arena got another new name after Miami-Dade County commissioners voted to enter into a 17-year deal to call the facility Kaseya Center, ESPN reported.

The name change went into effect immediately. Kaseya is a Miami-based software company and will fork over $117.37 million over the 17-year contract, with most of the payout going to the county.

The Heat will receive $2 million per year according to the terms of the deal.

Nearly five months ago, the NBA team and the county began to detach from the name FTX Arena and its brand due to the cryptocurrency exchange collapse and the company’s bankruptcy filing.

Sam Bankman-Fried, one of the company’s founders, pleaded not guilty to charges alleging that he cheated investors out of billions of dollars before FTX’s downfall.

“The collapse of our previous partner caught everyone by surprise, but in conjunction with Miami-Dade County, we worked efficiently and incredibly quickly to fill our naming rights vacancy with Kaseya,” Heat business operations president Eric Woolworth said.

Before the official name change, the arena was going by Miami-Dade Arena.

Kaseya also landed a deal to become the Heat’s official IT solutions partner as well.

Kaseya has 48,000 customers in more than 25 countries and approximately 4,500 employees.

In 2021, the county entered a 19-year, $135 million deal with FTX, which gave it its naming rights and included a $2 million annual payout to the Heat.

The arena opened in 1999 and had a contract with American Airlines, but in 2019, the Miami-based airline announced it wouldn’t renew its contract with the arena. The airline’s name remained on the building until 2021.