Bankrupt crypto business FTX ‘looks to terminate sports sponsorship deals as it requests for the Miami Heat arena naming rights, Golden State Warriors and MLB contracts to be scrapped’
Bankruptcy court filings from crypto giant FTX could see the company end many of its sponsorship deals with sports teams.
This includes FTX’s naming-rights deal with Miami-Dade County in Florida for the home basketball arena for the Miami Heat, according to the Miami Herald.
Lawyers for FTX filed a motion to cancel more than 23 marketing deals. That includes the currently-christened FTX Arena, which has had its name in place since 2021 – when the company paid $130 million for the rights.
Bankrupt crypto company FTX has requested to get out of its naming rights deal in Miami
They’ve also asked to drop their deal with MLB, which saw its logo placed on umpire’s uniforms
In addition to the request to scrap the deal with Miami, they’ve requested to end deals with the Golden State Warriors and Major League Baseball.
Golden State signed a deal back in December of 2021 to have FTX marketed as the team’s ‘Official Cryptocurrency Platform and NFT Marketplace’.
The Warriors were sued by a Canadian citizen who filed a class action suit back in November accusing the company of ‘fraudulently promoting the exchange.’
Back in November, the Warriors announced they were ‘pausing all FTX-related promotions’ at their home games at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, over in baseball, MLB umpires have been wearing FTX patches on their uniforms as part of their deal made back in June of 2021 to have FTX branded as the ‘official cryptocurrency exchange brand of MLB’.
The NBA’s Golden State Warriors are being sued for ‘fraudulently promoting the exchange’
League commissioner Rob Manfred said back in November that it would be a ‘pretty good bet’ the patches would not return to the uniforms next year.
‘The FTX development has been really jarring,’ Manfred said. ‘We will proceed with caution in the future, how much we have to worry about it depends on when this exactly lands.’
In addition to the professional ranks, the University of California at Berkeley (Cal) canceled its deal with the exchange to sponsor their football stadium as ‘FTX Field at California Memorial Stadium’.
For Miami, the county asked a judge in New York to void the deal, ‘citing “hardship” from being associated with FTX,’ the Herald’s report says.
The Heat – which had a separate sponsorship agreement with FTX – put out a joint statement with Miami-Dade saying they wanted to get out of their deal as well.
According to the Herald, FTX has paid $20m on the arena rights deal to the county so far and is due to pay an additional $5.5m in January.
Cal-Berkeley has also dropped a naming rights deal with the exchange at its football field
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