Editor’s Note: This article was published before last night’s opening night match was delayed by about two hours, as fans waited in lines exacerbated by technical issues in the arena, apparently related to facial ID entry.
Tech billionaire Steve Ballmer developed the NBA’s most expensive arena with a simple goal: to create the best basketball experience for Los Angeles Clippers fans and players as the NBA team finally settles into its shiny new home after spending 25 years as downtown Los Angeles’ third tenant.
Ballmer, the exuberant Microsoft mogul, tech visionary and basketball fanatic, channeled his passions into the Intuit Dome, a $2 billion, 18,000-seat arena in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood. The price tag, sources say, is in the neighborhood of $2.5 billion. The Intuit Dome lives up to Ballmer’s aspiration to build a home for an NBA championship team with cutting-edge technologies custom-designed to enhance not only the fan and player experience, but also the entertainer and spectator experience, while raising the bar for the next generation of big-league venues.
Artificial intelligence-powered public art installations, biometric dining technology, new-age locker rooms that wouldn’t look out of place aboard the USS Enterprise from “Star Trek”? Yes.
A saltwater rehabilitation pool, a lounge for NBA referees and a built-in phone charger.
A mesmerizing marvel that is the Halo scoreboard, an opulent VIP lounge where Clippers players emerge and plush, spacious seats, from P1 to seats that can measure the fans’ enthusiasm? Yes, all of that too.
But they’re not just gimmicks.
“It’s not a feature, it’s a mindset,” Halo Sports & Entertainment CEO Gillian Zucker tells Pollstar. “We want every person who walks into this arena to feel like the Intuit Dome was built for them. We asked the people who will be using each space what they need. So from the rigger setting up the sound rigs to the NBA referee to the person sitting in the back row to the player in the NBA locker room, we hope that every person sees the care and attention to detail that went into every decision. If we’ve done our job right, when you walk out of the Intuit Dome, you’ll feel like we thought of you.”
That’s what’s happening this week (August 15) with a two-night stint by Bruno Mars before the Clippers’ season opener in October. For the first time, an arena that hasn’t yet opened has been awarded an NBA All-Star Game (for the 2026 season) and will serve as a basketball venue during the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
After more than 100 visits to NBA and college stadiums and other venues, the goal was to give the Clippers a true home-field advantage after residing as the shortest of the litter at Crypto.com Arena, where they competed for dates against the Lakers, the NHL’s Kings and concerts.
“I’m a software guy,” Ballmer said in July at the unveiling of the arena’s stunning halo-shaped video display, a Daktronics masterpiece that takes overhead displays and Oculus design in general to the next level, offering nearly 40,000 square feet of digital space in 4K resolution.
The massive sign is reminiscent of the version Samsung built at SoFi Stadium, but in an arena setting, the proximity to the crowd is even more impactful in terms of sight and hearing. Ballmer noted that he liked the Mitsubishi sign hanging in the center of AT&T Stadium, where 15 years ago the Dallas Cowboys ushered in a new era of video technology, influencing design across the industry, but he found it a bit distracting.
“When you look at the old cards and you see these big pixels that are hard to look at, I didn’t want any of that,” Ballmer said. “Let’s figure out how to engage the fan. That’s what I wanted.”
At the Intuit Dome, the mantra is to keep fans seated and focused on the game.
The programming of the card and everything else is geared towards this goal.
With the addition of the Intuit Dome, the venue’s immediate area in Inglewood has become a hub for live sports and entertainment, within walking distance and within walking distance of the Hollywood Park development which includes SoFi Stadium and across the street from the famed Kia Forum.
Becky Colwell, general manager of Kia Forum and vice president of music and events at Intuit Dome, joined the Greek Theater in Los Angeles in 2022. “Someone described the venue the other day as ‘iconic’ and ‘the future’ between the two buildings,” Colwell said. “I think they complement each other rather than compete. We have the same booking team that runs the calendar, which is a huge help. So we’re presenting both options.”
Intuit Dome has three programmable spaces: an 18,000-capacity outdoor basketball court on the 80,000-square-foot plaza that seats 5,000; and Court B, a guest event space that can accommodate 500 to 600 people.
In concert mode, “The Wall,” the 51 rows of uninterrupted seating for 5,000 fans, is partially removed to make way for the stage. The venue’s six loading docks are located directly behind the seating section. In some cases, artists will play both the Forum and the Intuit Dome, including Olivia Rodrigo.
“She first came up to the Forum and then wanted to do two extra special nights,” Colwell said. “It worked out, so she’ll have a day or two off and then we found her a loading date here.”
Check out the full cover story and features on Intuit Dome in the September issue of VenuesNow magazine.
