The new home of the Los Angeles Clippers is set to officially open later this year, bringing with it the promise of the most technologically advanced indoor sports venue ever built.
The $2 billion privately financed Intuit Dome in Inglewood is the labor of love for former Microsoft CEO and current Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.
The new arena promises to continue the tech titan’s legacy by ushering in a new era for the city of Inglewood and reimagining the idea of what an entertainment and sports venue can be.
So what can you expect when visiting Intuit Dome for the first time?
The 17,700-seat arena will feature seats that are closer to the action than ever before. For example, seats in the upper bowl are 45 feet closer at Intuit Dome than at the team’s current home in downtown.
Speaking of seats, the new arena boasts the most spacious seats in the NBA with the most legroom and more space between the person next to you. Some sections come with seats that have climate control options and all seats are implanted with chips that provide data that could be used to improve the overall experience.
And the experience, Ballmer says, is designed to keep you in your seats and involved in the action, rather than standing in line.
“We do not want people to wait in line, we want them to get back to their damn seats,” Ballmer told reporters during a tour of the construction site in 2022.
Concession stands will offer seamless purchasing options, and the team promises zero lines when buying foods and drinks.
The arena also has three times as many toilets and urinals compared to other NBA arenas, meaning less time waiting in lines to do your business and more time cheering for the Clippers.
Cheering for the Clippers specifically is something the team says was imperative for leaving Crypto.com Arena and getting out of the shadow of their crosstown rival Los Angeles Lakers.
To build on and maximize their new home court advantage, the team is drawing on some inspiration from overseas, as well as the amateur ranks. Taking a page from European soccer and collegiate sports, the Clippers will have a dedicated supporter section aptly named “The Wall.”
The Wall is comprised of 51 uninterrupted rows of seats, filled with 4,500 fans stacked high and close to the action. Tickets for the section are limited to Clippers fans, according to Front Office Sports. Fans in that section are encouraged to be loud and proud for the Clippers and only the Clippers. They can’t cheer or sport gear for the opposing team and tickets can only be sold on the team’s official resale market.
The team, which has put in the work to grow its fanbase by giving back to the L.A. community through a number of initiatives, hopes the section will help foster a strong and reliable audience for Clippers home games.
If you’re not sitting courtside or in “The Wall,” the Clippers still have you covered with the pièce de résistance: a technological marvel that brings the entire arena together.
A more-than-38,000-square-foot double-sided “halo” board comprised of more 233 million LEDs will hang from the roof of Intuit Dome, giving every single person in attendance clear view of the current action, score, time and in-arena entertainment.
A larger, similar-style video board can be found next door at SoFi Stadium, but Intuit Dome’s will be the largest ever built for an indoor arena. The video board is so massive that the entire building’s roof was engineered specifically with it in mind.
Intuit Dome will also feature a number of amenities for Clippers players and staff, as well as several improvements to the Inglewood community and green-energy initiatives that aim to keep the project as earth-friendly as possible.
For a complete breakdown of all Intuit Dome has to offer, click here.
On Tuesday, it was announced that the arena had been chosen to host the 2026 NBA All-Star Game.
Los Angeles is also slated to host the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and Super Bowl LXI in 2027, both of which will take place at SoFi Stadium.
The city will also be the site of the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics; the men’s and women’s World Rugby Championships will come to town in 2031 and 2033, respectively.
“It’s been in Ohio as early as the mid-1850s at least, brought in as an ornamental plant because of its unique foliage and white flowers,” Gardner said. “It was actually planted in people’s landscaping, and it has been spreading.”
The team will begin moving into the arena this summer and Ballmer said it will be able to host concerts as soon as August.
An exact date has not yet been set for when Intuit Dome will see its first home game, but season tickets are already on sale for the team’s inaugural season in its new home. The 2024-25 season will tip off sometime in autumn 2024.
KTLA 5 is a broadcast partner of the Los Angeles Clippers.