DETROIT — The way this season has gone for the Miami Heat, it is possible they wind up with more names for their arena in 2022-23 than playoff victories.
The Miami-Dade County Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved a 17-year agreement for the Heat’s Biscayne Boulevard arena to immediately be renamed Kaseya Center, as part of a $117 million naming-rights agreement with the Miami-based software company.
The agreement comes in the wake of a similar deal with FTX being terminated in January after the failure and bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange.
In the wake of the county moving off the name FTX Arena, the Heat’s facility briefly was designated The Arena by the county and then formally was renamed Miami-Dade Arena in January. The Heat’s broadcast outlets also had referred to the facility as “The Heat’s House” amid the naming uncertainty.
The name change is immediate to the degree that the court at the Heat’s Sunday game against the Orlando Magic, the team’s lone remaining regular-season home game, will feature Kaseya branding, as will the court at the Heat’s postseason games. There also are plans for Kaseya branding at Saturday’s UFC event at the facility.
The Heat, in the midst of an uneven season, currently are seeded to host a play-in round postseason game next Tuesday, not yet assured of a playoff berth.
The Heat initially played at since-demolished Miami Arena from the team’s 1988 inception until Dec. 28, 1999. The team then moved to the current facility alongside Biscayne Bay, which carried the name of AmericanAirlines Arena from 1999 to 2021 and FTX Arena from 2021 until the middle of this season.
Heat President Eric Woolworth acknowledged that the evolving arena name created branding challenges.
“Listen,” he said, “it’s not ideal. We’re not running away from that. What happened with FTX blindsided us. We weren’t obviously anticipating that and it’s been a challenging year. But we’re super happy that we’re putting that behind us and moving ahead really as fast as any deal has ever been done in this industry. We’re proud of that.
“It was certainly our desire to not look back, but to move forward as quickly as we could. I think we’ve accomplished that.”
Naming rights are under the purview of the county, but the Heat have input into the process. The Heat receive $2 million annually as part of their operation of the facility, a fee paid from the county regardless of whether the county has naming rights in place.
“The county owns the rights,” Woolworth said, “but we are party that has to execute on all of the elements of the deal. So we’ve been involved from the beginning helping them find the right partner, helping the negotiations proceed.”
Woolworth said the Heat will also have a marketing agreement with Kaseya, as the team did with FTX.
As with the FTX agreement, the Kaseya naming-rights revenue will be put by Miami-Dade toward the county’s “Anti-Gun Violence and Prosperity Initiatives” Trust Fund.
“One of the things about the deal that we are most proud of is that the anti-gun violence program at the county is going to continue to get funded without any interruption,” Woolworth said.
According to the Miami-Dade memorandum, “Kaseya is a global software company with 48,000 customers in more than 25 countries, and approximately 4,500 employees. The Miami headquarters of Kaseya is home to over 900 employees spanning four prominent buildings in the Brickell and Downtown Miami area.”
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said concerns already are alleviated regarding a repeat episode similar to how the agreement played out with FTX.
“Kaseya is a well-established company with 20 years of experience in a growing market and a $2 billion valuation,” she said. “Additionally, the company has provided an irrevocable letter of credit from their financial institution that guarantees the next 18 months of contractual revenue, which helps ensure the sustainability of this agreement.”
Among elements included in the Kaseya naming rights are:
— Logo signage at the arena’s main, west, south and north entrances.
— Rooftop arena logo.
— Promotional messaging for at least 20 minutes daily on the arena-front Media Mesh.
— Logo branding affixed to court.
— Branding on staff uniforms and badges.
— Branding on center-hung scoreboard.
— Two branded giveaway contests per Heat game.
— Four Courtside South season tickets (Seats 48-51).
— Up to 10 half-day and five full-day uses of the arena.
