Miami-Dade

What Does Kaseya Mean? Heat Arena Officially Has a New Name

This is the fourth name for the Miami Heat's arena.

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The arena where the Miami Heat plays officially has a new name: the Kaseya Center. 

The IT and security software company Kaseya purchased the naming rights after FTX went bankrupt. 

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If you have never heard of the company, you are not alone. The name, pronounced Kuh-say-ah, comes from the Sioux word for "protect and defend." The company creates software to protect the data of mid-size and small businesses. 

“This is so exciting we have not only a new naming right partner, but a great one and a local one,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. 

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Kaseya moved its headquarters to Miami back in 2018. Now in just five months, it locked in a 17-year, $117 million naming rights deal that will make up for the money that disappeared from FTX after it collapsed late last year.

The company’s CEO, Fred Voccola, said Kaseya is much more stable than FTX.

“At Kaseya, we are a very quiet but very large, very successful very profitable company," he said. "Think of Kaseya as a meat-and-potatoes kind of company. FTX was a very sexy trendy crypto mysterious company."

The mayor agreed, saying the county did its homework.

“Nothing is going to happen so we are not worried, but just in case, there are some safeguards for protecting the funding into the future,” Levine Cava said. 

For the third time in the last three months, the downtown Miami arena that is the home of the NBA’s Miami Heat will have a different name. NBC6's Alyssa Hyman has the details.

Not only is Kaseya supporting the arena, but it is also pledging to create 3,000 jobs in Miami over the next three years in exchange for $4.6 million in county incentives.

“We are not going to leave you; as long as you guys are willing to have us, we will never leave. As long as our county and Heat want us, we’re here and hopefully, that’s for at least 17 years,” Voccola said.

This is the fourth name for the arena. Prior to Kaseya, it was called the Miami-Dade Arena, FTX Arena and American Airlines Arena, which was the original name when it opened in 1999. 

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