Clippers’ Intuit Dome Tops Out, Nears 2024 Opening

The Los Angeles Clippers remain on track for a 2024 opening of Steve Ballmer’s Inuit Dome in Inglewood. A topping-out ceremony in March highlighted the progress on the construction and the move toward the completion of the new 18,000-capacity venue.

As dignitaries, team officials and Clippers players gathered inside the steel structure, the form of the venue highlighted the event. The AECOM design includes a soccer-inspired The Wall with an intense rake of the 51-row section mimicking that of a supporters section in soccer. Row 20 of The Wall is 45 feet closer—almost a complete NBA half-court—than a fan sitting at the same height along the baseline in the team’s current home, Crypto.com Arena.

Plus, there’s a giant scoreboard team chairman Ballmer is excited to debut.

“You can all see the scoreboard,” he said at the topping-out ceremony. “You might now know it’s a scoreboard, but if you look at these steel panels for example here on the right, that’s the frame for the scoreboard. An acre, one acre of scoreboard. About five times any other arena in the league.”

Gillian Zucker, the Clippers’ president of business operations, says the project remains on schedule for a full 2024 opening.

And this isn’t an arena or a center. This is a dome. “I like the concept of the dome,” says Ballmer. “It feels sort of more unique, more energetic. We are trying to build a basketball mecca here and I wanted to make a certain kind of a statement and that is why we went dome. We are the Intuit Dome.”

Watching videos of soccer and basketball venues in Europe gave Ballmer multiple examples of “this amazing wall and I just kind of loved the concept” enough to bring it to his new home. “Yes, there was a decibel analysis and all that, but I think just the visual presence will be intimidating and a home court advantage,” he says.

To increase comfort, Ballmer says he’s ensured the most leg room of any venue in the NBA and seats in the upper bowl of the Intuit Dome will have more legroom than the lower bowl of Crypto.com Arena.

Inside the bowl, AECOM engineered the Intuit Dome’s roof to specifically accommodate the 44,000-square-feet of LED lights, a full acre’s worth, in the two-sided halo board without blocking sight lines.

Seating options include four premium clubs to make up 3,800 lower-bowl seats, 14 court-level suites and 46 suites in a horseshoe formation on a single level above the lower bowl. The 14 court-level options include four courtside cabanas positioned directly behind the baseline seats where Ballmer sits (opposite The Wall) and include privacy glass lining the player tunnel on the backside.

The 10 backstage bungalows on the sideline opposite the benches make up the balance of floor-level suits and offer an all-inclusive luxury option that features a private suite on the floor level with direct access to seats in the lower bowl. The 46 halo suites above the lower bowl were designed to blend into the design to not allow sound to escape while placing suite holders in the bowl, not remove them from it.

Outside, an 80,000-square-foot plaza will feature bars, restaurants, a team store and a regulation-size basketball court complete with large screen the Clippers say will get used by local youth leagues and AAU tournaments. Inside, Court B is an exact replica of the main court and can host community and charity events.

The Intuit Dome’s solar panels combine with on-site battery storage to generate enough power and storage to run an NBA Finals game off-the-grid.