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FTX Arena, Miami, Florida

Witness Post: Edifice Complex

What is an Edifice Complex, anyway? Sounds like a riff off the old Freudian psychological condition known as the Oedipus Complex. In fact: IT IS!

First recognized in the Marcos-era Philippines, the author, Gerard Lico, wrote a convincing book that delivered a straightforward narrative of buildings erected in Manila and major cities across the archipelago country. Lico called the developed area the CCP Complex, “situated within the terrain of tyranny that rerouted foreign aid funds.” Millions of dollars were hidden and co-opted, as the monarch added architectural flair to the buildings in the capital city and beyond. Architects were hired to design these monstrous buildings by the likes of Locsin, Manosa, and Hong.

Published in 2003, Gerard Lico’s book was titled Edifice Complex: Power, Myth and Marcos State Architecture.

Dot.Com Era Edifice Complex

My former business partner, David Nierenberg, borrowed the expression from Gerard Lico to emphasize the hubris of many American Companies. They would put their names on stadiums and significant visible buildings as a sign of superiority in the Dot.Com era of the business world. These companies bullied their way into social consciousness with their marketing muscle. David often pondered these decisions by CEO’s and CFO’s, seeing them as red flags (signs that there would soon be a fall from grace). Their lack of humility would allow them to crash and burn in the cinderboxes of time.

The list of companies guilty of the Edifice Complex over the years is long. Let’s look at some of the recent and some not-so-recent ones that come to mind:

ENRON Field, Houston, Texas, $3.3 million (2001)

Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, $3 million (2008)

CMGI Field, Foxborough, Massachusetts, $7.6 million (2000)

PSINet Stadium, Baltimore, Maryland, $5.3 million (1999)

Adelphia Colliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, $2 million (2002)

National Car Rental Stadium, Sunrise Florida, $2.2 million (2002)

Trans World Dome, St. Louis, Missouri, $1.3 million (1995)

FTX Arena, Miami, Florida, $135 million (2021).[1]

Rendering of NRG Stadium, Los Angeles, California …

Footnote

[1] Worth noting is that at a price tag of $135 million, the FTX Arena naming rights were 100 times greater than some of the others on this list, making their “down in flames” trajectory a costly exclamation point to the now-defunct Crypto Exchange!