Miami-Dade County and the Miami Heat have agreed to a $117 million 17-year deal with software company Kaseya that will rename the basketball team’s arena as the Kaseya Center.
The collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX prompted the county and the team to look for a new partner for the 19,600-seat arena. In 2021, the county had approved a 19-year, $135 million deal naming rights deal with FTX to change the name of the American Airlines Arena to FTX Arena.
“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 — a local, dynamic and growing company creating job opportunities for South Floridians,” Eric Woolworth, president of the Heat Group’s business operations, said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the long-term partnership agreement with Kaseya, making the company “the official IT solutions partner of the Miami Heat.”
“Since Kaseya relocated its headquarters to Miami, it has demonstrated a real commitment to invest in our economy and our local talent by opening the door to the jobs of the future,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a release. ”This deal will not only allow us to continue investing in critical crime prevention programs, it will also strengthen our brand as a global, diverse and future-ready community.”
The Miami headquarters of Kaseya is home to over 900 employees spanning four prominent buildings in the Brickell and Downtown Miami area, and the company is committed to investing significantly over the next several years to increase its employee base in the area with an addition of more than 3,000 full-time positions.
“Miami is our home and having Kaseya showcased globally as synonymous with Miami is something we’re very proud of, and will provide significant value to our customers and employees,” said Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola.
Kaseya is currently the presenting sponsor of the Miami Heat’s “Bounce Back from Cancer” initiative, which has raised $6.4 million since 2019 for research.
In addition to naming rights, Kaseya will get in-arena signage, hospitality, gameday features, digital content, community engagements, entitlement of the long-standing veterans initiative Home Strong, the county said.
Greenberg Traurig represented Kaseya in the negotiations.