Design meetings have been going on for years. Technology has evolved throughout the process. Meticulous decisions were made time and time again including on questions like what it would mean to have a 2.5 or 3 centimeter difference in legroom between the rows of seats or where in the seat the cup holder should be placed. Finally, Steve Ballmer and Los Angeles Clippers are ready to build the new stadium of the franchise, which promises to be the most modern and spectacular of the NBA.
The venue, which will be located in Inglewood, it will cost $ 1.8 billion and will be financed by private capital, it has an official name from this Friday. Will be called Intuit Dome (Named after Intuit, a North American commercial software company) and will open in 2024, the team announced on the day of the formal groundbreaking ceremony.
The team players, headed by the stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul george but also with the presence of the legend Jerry west (the man whose figure is the NBA logo and who shone in the Lakers but today is an executive of the Clippers) symbolically threw the first shovels of land in the place.
Training facilities, team offices for administrative and sports operations, commercial areas and much more will be in the same complex.
The LED strip instead of the display cube, one of the highlights of the Intuit Dome.
Ballmer, the team owner, just thinks it will be like no other stadium of the NBA.
“The mecca of basketball! The palace of basketball!” Said the businessman, former executive director of Microsoft, with his usual enthusiasm in an interview with The Associated Press.
It could be right.
Every detail serves a purpose, from the huge dash video screen that will hang over the court to the way the restrooms will be designed to get fans back to their seats as quickly as possible.
The interior of the future Intuit Dome of the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA. Photo @IntuitDome
The board, unlike the classic cubes, will be a strip that will cover a large part of the room; will include 4087.8 square meters of LED lighting, almost half a hectare of surface and about six times the average size of other giant screens in arenas of the NBA. The dome roof was designed to house the dash, not the other way around.
The things executives have seen in football stadiums, on other NBA fields, from the NFL and even in the Amazon Go stores they generated several ideas that will be put into practice in the Intuit Dome. “I had a lot of my own opinions … and a lot of things were inspired from elsewhere,” Ballmer acknowledged.
The Clippers currently play in the Staples Center, also home of Los angeles lakers and the Los Angeles NHL team (hockey on ice), the Kings.
Internal corridor of the future home of the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA. Photo @IntuitDome
Ballmer began planning an exclusive stadium for the Clippers years ago and introduced the project informally in 2019, stating at the time that the Clippers would begin construction in 2021 and open the venue in 2024.
So far, even with the coronavirus pandemic and after overcoming some legal challenges, it goes in a timely manner.
The Clippers often feel like “tenants” at the Staples Center. They have come to play at 12.30 noon because the Lakers or the Kings had a game that day in the same building. “We don’t want to play in anyone’s shadow, ” Ballmer said.
According to the information provided by the team, the field will collect the latest advances in technology, computing, electronics and it will allow fans to have a new experience, in addition to feeling like they are in their own home.
The latest technological advances will be picked up everywhere, like some that will allow fans to leave their seats, walk to a concession stand on the esplanade, grab a drink or snack, and then return to their seat.
There would be no cashier, no one to take the order and the customer’s account would be charged automatically.
One of the luxury sectors of the Los Angeles Clippers Intuit Dome.
The legroom of the fans when seated will be a constant throughout the interior of the field, from the lowest rows to the top, and they ensure that will far exceed the standard found in most NBA stadiums today.
All seats will be oriented so that each fan can have the best view of what is happening on the field, no matter where they are. That concept is what has led the Clippers and those responsible for the design and construction of the Intuit Dome to call it “The Wall” (“the wall”).
The new sports hall is designed so that the acoustic factor can make the most of the noise generated by fans to give all the support to the team and you can feel the difference of playing at home.
With information from AP and EFE.
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