NEW YORK — It's the place where LeBron James played on his first team with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Where they joined teammates like Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd in a giant circle at center court to celebrate the U.S. men's reclamation of Olympic basketball gold in 2008.
It's also where Lisa Leslie and Teresa Edwards became the only basketball players ever to win four gold medals, as they led U.S. women to their share of the glory.
And it's where the National Basketball Association has brought U.S. teams to compete before some of its most avid international fans.
So perhaps it's fitting that the Wukesong Arena in Beijing will bear an American company's name.
The 18,000-seat Olympic basketball arena will be renamed the MasterCard Center, the Purchase, N.Y.-based payments company said Thursday. In Chinese, the name will be Wanshida Zhongxin.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
It's the first 2008 Olympic Games venue and first arena in Beijing to sell naming rights, a practice common in the U.S. but rare in a country where the government owns most sports complexes.
The renaming will become official on Jan. 21, when Cantonese pop singer Jacky Cheung is slated to perform. The arena is also booked this year for other musical acts, including the American rock band the Eagles, and for NBA preseason games, table tennis, badminton and other sports events.
Venue owners Bloomage International Investment Group have signed Los Angeles-based AEG and the NBA as consultants to run the arena.
Ling Hai, president of MasterCard Worldwide's Greater China division, said economic growth has driven a surge in public demand for live entertainment and sports events in the country. One Beijing group that tracks such events said Beijing's performance market grew nearly 60 percent since 2008, bringing in some 933 million Chinese yuan (about $136.5 million) in 2009.
MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga has repeatedly pointed to international growth as key for the company. The huge Chinese market is particularly attractive for MasterCard, which already gets nearly 60 percent of its revenue from outside the U.S.
In September, MasterCard Inc. announced an agreement with China UnionPay, the state-owned company that has a monopoly on issuing credit cards in the country, to explore business opportunities together. China UnionPay already issues dual-currency cards with both its own logo and MasterCard's, designed to enable Chinese consumers to use their credit cards overseas.
Ling noted MasterCard's Chinese name, Wanshida, means "everything is attainable."
MasterCard shares closed Thursday trading up 98 cents at $231.12. The stock has traded between $193 and $269.88 in the past year.