Clippers ready to build home
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The design meetings have been going on for years. Technology has evolved throughout the process. Painstaking decisions were made, right down to what an inch or two difference in leg room between rows would mean or where cupholders should be affixed to the seats.
Finally, Steve Ballmer and the Clippers are ready to build their new home.
The Clippers’ longawaited, $1.8 billion, privately funded arena officially got a name Friday — Intuit Dome, it’ll be called when it opens in 2024, the team making that announcement on the day of the formal groundbreaking ceremony. The practice facility, team offices for both business and basketball operations, retail space and more will all be on the site.
Ballmer, the team’s owner, simply believes it’ll be like no other building in the NBA.
“Basketball mecca! Basketball palazzo!” Ballmer, in his usual excitable way, said in an interview with The Associated Press. He might be right. Every detail — from the huge halo video screen that will hover over the court, to how the bathrooms will be designed to get fans back in their seats — has a purpose. The halo will include 44,000 square feet of LED lighting, slightly more than one full acre and roughly six times the average size of other “big” screens in NBA buildings. The roof of the dome was designed to accommodate the halo.
Things the Clippers have seen in play at German soccer stadiums, other NBA buildings, NFL stadiums, even the
Amazon Go checkout-free convenience stores all sparked various ideas that will be put into play.
“I had a lot of my own opinions ... and most of the things had some inspiration that came from someplace else,” Ballmer said.
The Clippers currently play at Staples Center, also the home of the Los Angeles Lakers and the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings. Ballmer began plotting a Clippers-only home years ago and formally unveiled the project in 2019, saying then that the Clippers would break ground in 2021 and open in 2024.
So far, with a pandemic and some legal challenges, he’s still on schedule.
“When we started the questions were ‘Do you want it to be the best for sponsors? Do you want it to be the best for musicians? Do you want it to be the best for fans? And if you want it to be the best for fans, then for the fancy seats or the fans in the back?”’ Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker said. “And he said, ‘yes.’ That’s what this place is all about.”
Technology will be everywhere, such as some that would allow fans to leave their seat, walk to a concession stand in the concourse, grab a beverage or snack and then — if they do as Ballmer hopes — get right back to their seat. There would be no cashier, nobody to take the order, and the customer’s account would be charged automatically. Even the best suites won’t have big televisions. The reason is simple: Ballmer wants fans watching the game from their seat and being part of a home-court advantage.
“It’s about the game of basketball ... and we’re trying to get you back in your seat as quickly as we can,” Ballmer said.