Staples Center is changing its name to Crypto.com Arena

LOS ANGELES — Staples Center is getting a new name. Starting Christmas Day, it will be Crypto.com Arena.

The downtown Los Angeles home of the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers, the NHL’s Kings and the WNBA’s Sparks will change its name after 22 years of operation, arena owner AEG announced Tuesday night.

A person with knowledge of the deal tells The Associated Press that Crypto.com is paying $700 million over 20 years to rename the building. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the parties aren’t publicly announcing the terms of what’s believed to be the richest naming rights deal in sports history.

The 20,000-seat arena has been the Staples Center since it opened in October 1999, with the naming rights owned by the American office-supplies retail company under a 20-year agreement. The name will change when the Lakers host the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA’s annual Christmas showcase.

Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency platform and exchange headquartered in Singapore. Founded in 2016, Crypto.com has been on a spending spree across the global sports landscape over the past year. The platform has inked high-visibility sponsorship deals with Formula One, the UFC, Italy’s Serie A, Paris St-Germain and the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens — while also purchasing the Philadelphia 76ers’ uniform sponsorship patch.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

LOS ANGELES — Growing up in northern Utah, Jaxson Dart obviously couldn’t acquire a full appreciation of what makes USCs rivalry with UCLA so good.

The Trojans’ 18-year-old freshman quarterback realizes he’s about to get a crash course in the emotions and excitement of Los Angeles’ crosstown showdown.

Dart will make his first career start for USC (4-5, 3-4 Pac-12) on Saturday at the Coliseum against the Bruins (6-4, 4-3). Third-year starter Kedon Slovis is still sidelined by a lower leg injury, clearing the way for Dart to fully take charge of the Trojans’ offense after three appearances this season in relief.

“I wouldn’t really expect my first start to be in a rivalry game like this,” Dart said. “All the emotions and the history of it all. I’m just super excited for the opportunity, and I’m ready to go.”

WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

The NCAA women’s basketball tournament is expanding to 68 teams beginning with the current season, giving it an equal number of participants as the men’s tournament as part of a concerted effort at gender parity.

The men’s tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2011 with four firstround games traditionally played in Dayton, Ohio. The first four for the women’s tournament will take place on the campuses of teams seeded in the top 16 this season, but they will move to a to-be-determined neutral site beginning with the 2023 tournament.

“This immediate expansion of the women’s basketball championship reinforces the fact that leaders within Division I are committed to strengthening aspects of the women’s basketball championship that directly impact student-athletes,” said West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons, the chairman of the Division I Council.

“We look forward to the positive change this will have for the student experience at the championship,” Lyons said, “especially as it relates to equal team opportunities to compete in the tournament.”

MLB

NEW YORK — Justin Verlander reached a $25 million deal to remain with the Houston Astros as he comes back from Tommy John surgery, and Brandon Belt accepted an $18.4 million qualifying offer from the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.

Verlander, a 38-year-old righthander, has a conditional $25 million option for 2023 as part of the agreement.

Verlander is 226-129 with a 3.33 ERA in 16 seasons.

Belt was the only one to accept among the 14 free agents who received the offers from their former clubs on Nov. 7. Bell is 33 and perhaps wary of a free-agent market at first base that includes 2020 NL MVP Freddie Freeman.

Belt hit .274 with a career-high 29 home runs and 59 RBIs last season.

Two of the players who received offers have finalized contracts with new teams.

Left-hander Eduardo Rodríguez left Boston for a $77 million, fiveyear contract with Detroit, and right-hander Noah Syndergaard left the Mets for a $21 million, one-year contract with the Angels.

CLEVELAND — A new era of big-league baseball in Cleveland is about to start.

The Guardians will be off and running.

The hitting and fielding comes in a few months.

The Indians will officially transition to Guardians on Friday, completing a name change that has been happening in stages — and with one unplanned complication — over the past few months.

The team sent out a release saying its team shop at Progressive Field will begin selling Guardians merchandise and souvenirs later this week.

The store at the team’s downtown ballpark will exclusively sell Guardians gear before caps, jerseys and more become available at retail outlets in northeast Ohio on Nov. 23.

The team said some digital elements will change today before Cleveland’s team website and social media handles transition to Guardians on Friday.

NHL

BOSTON — The owners of the Boston Red Sox are in talks to buy the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins.

Red Sox President Sam Kennedy confirmed that Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Major League Baseball team as well as Liverpool FC of the Premier League and is partners in the RFK Racing NASCAR team, has been working on a deal for the professional hockey club. The talks were first reported by Sportico.

Former Penguins star and current part-owner Mario Lemieux and the management team will reportedly remain in place.

Kennedy declined to elaborate on the terms of the deal. A Penguins spokeswoman did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Sportico valued the Penguins last month at $845 million.

TENNIS

GENEVA — Roger Federer does not expect to return from his latest knee surgery in time for next year’s tournament at Wimbledon.

The 40-year-old tennis great, who has won a record eight titles at the All England Club, said in an interview published in Switzerland that it wouldn’t make a big difference to him if he was to return in 2022 or 2023.

“The truth is that I’d be incredibly surprised to play Wimbledon,” Federer told the Tribune de Genève daily. ”At 40 or 41 years old, it’s the same.”

Federer did say that he still wants to play in one more Grand Slam final.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Garbiñe Muguruza said earlier in the week that playing at Mexico was like playing at home.

After winning the WTA Finals title, it certainly looked that way.

The 28-year-old Spaniard beat Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 7-5 to win WTA Finals title for the first time in her career and improve her record playing in Mexico at 14 wins and two losses.

Muguruza, who won back-to-back titles in Monterrey in northern Mexico in 2018 and 2019, became the first Spaniard to win the women´s season-ending tournament.

The former No. 1-ranked Muguruza, who was a semifinalist of the WTA Finals in 2015, also became the oldest champion since Serena Williams won it in 2014 and will finish the season at No. 3 in the rankings, her best performance since 2017.