On August 15, 2024, the new Los Angeles Clippers home opened to the public for a sell-out Bruno Mars show. This new arena is located in the Hollywood Park area in Inglewood, California, which also houses three other notable venues such as The Kia Forum, SoFi Stadium, and the Youtube Theater. These four venues are some of the most remarkable venues of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
The Clippers were originally called the Buffalo Braves and were also based in Buffalo before later moving to San Diego in 1978 and changing to the San Diego Clippers. In 1984, the Clippers moved to Los Angeles. Starting in 1999, they played in the formerly called Staples Center, which is now the Crypto.Com arena, all the way up to 2024. The Clippers have always had to compete with the Laker’s popularity- being less successful and having to share an arena didn’t help. This was the biggest reason for wanting the brand new arena.
The cost of the Inuit Dome broke two billion dollars with less than 18,000 seats. The price is expected to end up with a cost a little over the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, where the 2024 Super Bowl was held and can hold up to 65,000 seats. The Intuit Dome is one of few arenas to have cost so much money. The SoFi stadium next door is also the most expensive venue in the world, putting the two as some of the most expensive of their kind. Former CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, was the man and billionaire who owns the Clippers and is the brain behind this project. Many citizens of Inglewood have expressed their fear of gentrification in the area due to the economic difficulties many face there.
The arena is covered by diamond-shaped panels placed on a structural steel diagrid. These little details help the exterior of the building represent a giant basketball net. In total, the arena has five full-sized courts including an outdoor one and two practice courts. Inside the arena, it contains a whole section which is supposed to make the opposing team feel uneasy. This section is called “The Wall”. “The Wall” contains 51 rows of seats as near to the visitor’s bench as possible and makes the atmosphere in that area feel intense. The most impressive feature of this arena is the double-sided video screen, which is the biggest to ever be installed in an arena. It will contain 200 million LED lights.
The arena is set to be 100% carbon-free, fully electric, and will be saving 7.5 million gallons of water every year. Since it’s mostly sunny in L.A., on most days this would be perfect for installing solar panels, which they did. The solar panels feed into an on-site battery system and the arena can still operate for six hours off the grid.
What’s gonna happen to the already existing Kia Forum just down the road, you may ask? The Kia Forum is the first built arena in this area, and once housed the Lakers but is now mainly used for concerts. Many were opposed to the idea of a new arena being built. The Madison Square Garden Company was the owner of the arena, who Steve Ballmer eventually faced lawsuits from them for trying to block the sale. They also protested against Ballmer building the Intuit dome but then did eventually end up buying The Kia Forum. Now the Intuit Dome is officially opened and seems to already be a big hit in the entertainment industry, with top tier artists already holding performances in the Intuit Dome such as Olivia Rodrigo. There’s expected to be more upcoming artists such as Usher, NCT Dream, Slipknot, and Billy Joel.
