Porn Company Offers $10M Per Year For Naming Rights To Miami Heat Arena
All the luxury condos filling up Miami's skylines can't quite cover up the ever-present sex appeal of the city that gave us Miami Vice, 2 Live Crew, Pitbull and so much in between. Miami's old mayor regularly stripped down for bodybuilding competitions, and our new mayor loves to show off his CrossFit routine.
Miami officials have tried to clean up its reputation, touting incoming banks and tech companies. But a local porn company, trying to get naming rights for the downtown arena where the Miami Heat play and concerts are held, is hoping millions can convince the city to embrace its history and personality, once and for all.
American Airlines bought the 20-year naming rights to the arena for $42M in 1999, and the deal is set to expire at the end of this year. With the news that AA would not be extending its sponsorship, BangBros — a Miami-based internet porn company — decided it would try to penetrate the arena naming rights market on behalf of adult entertainment.
The company announced on Twitter it had made a $10M-per-year offer to Myles Gallagher of Cleveland-based Superlative Group, which is handling the sponsorship deal. Days later, BangBros executive Cullen McRae told a Miami Heat blog that the company is even willing to increase that offer. The company already bought the domain name BangBrosCenter.com.
"Both the Heat and Bangbros have become staples of the city, with huge fans of each. It doesn't get much more Miami than having the arena sponsored by Bangbros," the company said in its initial announcement.
The offer was dismissed by some as a publicity stunt, but McRae, who left a video coaching job with the Miami Marlins to work in porn, has said, "Bang Bros is trying to make porn more acceptable in society through mainstream avenues. Sex is everywhere, society is a bit hypocritical and we are trying to take it out of its shell."
The Heat had been in control of the naming rights until last year, when the county exercised its right to take them over, according to Superlative.
"The existing arena deal costs Miami-Dade about $5.5M in annual subsidies, and the county receives almost no revenue from the $2M that American pays the Heat each year," the group wrote. Any new deal is expected to fetch $6M per year or more.
Critics pooh-poohed the idea of BangBros taking over, especially since sports games and concerts are supposed to be family-friendly events.
But, as a columnist for the Miami New Times wrote, "The "BBC" (BangBros Center) has a nice ring to it, the money is on point, and it's 2019, dammit."
The county, which has decency rules in place that might have to be worked around to approve the deal, will have the final say. Oddsmakers have chimed in: BetOnline calculated that the odds of the change happening are at +1000, or 10-to-1.
