Fandom, speculation, and capitalist space-time at the Crypto.com Arena

Abstract

In 2021, the cryptocurrency exchange platform Crypto.com bought the naming rights to the Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers, and the stadium was renamed Crypto.com Arena by the year's end. An analysis of posts on the subject on the social media platform Reddit shows a highly polarized reaction to this change: for Lakers fans and the wider basketball community, the name change became a moment for nostalgic looking back, memorializing an iconic era in Lakers history associated with the late Kobe Bryant. For cryptocurrency proponents, it served largely as a symbol of a bright financial and technological future just around the corner. Ultimately, however, both communities' reactions to the change demonstrate a tense relationship to the branded stadium that is in need of constant renegotiation and redefinition as dictated by the ebbs and flows of capital. Examining the Staples Center/Crypto.com Arena as a site for contested readings between these invested communities shows how the stadium and its name serve as a battleground for the formation of identity within late capitalism.