The LA Clippers’ new home stadium is setting the new standard for sports arenas.
Ever since the Los Angeles Clippers left their old stadium, the LA Memorial Sports Arena, in 1999, they’ve had to share a home court with the LA Lakers and the city’s NHL team, the LA Kings. Eventually, the Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as Staples Center) perhaps just didn’t feel big enough to house three of LA’s biggest sports teams.
But the Clippers are done sharing.
This year, they have the brand new Intuit Dome to call home. The indoor arena officially opened last August in preparation for the 2024-25 NBA season and has quickly become one of the biggest topics of conversation since the league’s Opening Night as it is the most technologically advanced stadium in the league. But the flashy, fancy features that come with this $2 billion arena aren’t just for the sake of flair — they make for a top-notch fan experience.
Let’s take a peek into some of Intuit Dome’s fanciest, most high-tech features.
The Halo Board
The biggest and most unmissable feature of Intuit Dome, even if you’re watching the Clippers on TV, is the giant LED screen that wraps around the entire ceiling, enough to make fans feel like they’re living in a real-life Space Jam game. They call this the Halo Board.
The Halo Board is a 40,000-square-foot double-sided LED screen that hangs over the court. Worth around $100 million, this screen, however, was not just meant to look cool. It was built with the fans in mind — every fan in the stadium. With such a big, wraparound screen, all the fans, including the ones in the highest seats in the building, will have a clear view of replays, stats, highlights, and anything else that’s displayed on the Halo Board. No more asking for recaps from the person next to you.
To make things even more fun for the fans, the Halo Board is built with t-shirt cannons so that no matter where you’re sitting, you’ll have a chance to catch one.
The fan experience
When Clippers owner Steve Ballmer set out to build Intuit Dome, he reportedly took inspiration from his own living room. With this, Clippers fans can give the term “home game” an entirely new meaning.
The advanced technology starts from the moment you enter the Dome. Fans have to download an app before arriving, and on the app, they can opt to upload a photo of their faces, and this facial recognition system will connect their face to their ticket and credit card. This means you don’t need to reach for your wallet when you shop inside the stadium. In fact, the concession stands inside Intuit Dome are cashier-less, so fans can just grab what they want and tap their phones to check out.
But the real fun starts when you get to your seat.
With a capacity of nearly 18,000, each of the seats in Intuit Dome was built for the comfort of the fans. The seats have the most legroom in the NBA (yes, even if you’re sitting all the way up in the nosebleeds), a USB port where you can charge your phone, a controller that fans can use to play games on the Halo Board, and a decibel meter that reports how loud each fan is — the loudest and most passionate fans even get rewards for food and merch in the stadium.
Built with sustainability in mind
It’s a great venue for fans, and it’s great for the environment.
When Ballmer, also the former CEO of Microsoft, set out to build the LA Clippers’ new home, he wanted it to be a completely carbon-neutral venue. With this in mind, Intuit Dome was built with solar panels all over, which is responsible for generating most of its energy.
In addition to this, Intuit Dome was also built to be naturally ventilated through their energy-efficient power system, which saves on the energy needed to keep fans comfortable while inside.
This, along with all the other incredible features that $2 billion dollars could buy, makes Intuit Dome one of the coolest home stadiums in the NBA, prioritizing the fan experience and making it a must-visit destination, even for non-Clippers fans.
Banner image from AFP.