The L.A. Clippers had their 2024-25 home debut on Wednesday night, which was the first regular-season game ever played at the Intuit Dome.
It is a special arena for many reasons, including The Wall, but one of the most underrated features is the way that the stadium has revolutionized the promotional t-shirt.
While other stadiums across professional and collegiate sports have used archaic methodologies of t-shirt giveaways by literally tossing them into the crowd, Intuit Dome has taken the technology into the future with how they’re doing it in Inglewood.
Rather than using cheerleaders and mascots tossing t-shirts into the crowd from the court using either their hands or a cannon, Intuit Dome is using the halo scoreboard.
“The Halo Board also can measure how loud fans are screaming, utilizing a system that can narrow audio level down to a single seat, according to Zucker. And it has T-shirt cannons at the top ready to launch free shirts to fans seated at the top of the arena.”
Every fan in the arena has an equal chance of getting a t-shirt no matter where they are sitting and the video graphics makes it look like the players are throwing it directly to them.
Ballmer clearly made an effort to create a genuinely fun atmosphere at this NBA arena, and he is personally putting in the work to help give his team a home crowd advantage.
While it might not work every time, the efforts are beyond admirable.
Well, good news, Los Angeles Clippers fans who were at the Intuit Dome: you won a free Chick-fil-A sandwich thanks to The Wall, the new fan section that is quite amazing.
The bad news? Your team lost, and it was partially thanks to Kevin Durant silencing the crowd.
But let’s go back for a sec: in the fourth quarter, KD stepped up to the line in front of The Wall to attempt a couple of free throws … and he missed them both, triggering the free chicken.
The Clippers continue challenging the common fan experience with their new $2 billion arena
Los Angeles Clippers chairman Steve Ballmer has taken everything he loathes about modern NBA arenas and made it his personal mission to fix the fan experience.
Then the Clippers showed off “The Wall“, 51 uninterrupted rows of seats behind one baseline specifically for Los Angeles fans to taunt opponents. Those tickets can only be resold on the Clippers’ marketplace.
But the latest technological innovation he unveiled on Friday has finally solved one of biggest fan experience gripes in all of sports: The T-Shirt Cannon.
For years, teams have worked to find ways to create a t-shirt toss during timeouts that reaches every corner of the arena and not just the high-priced seats closer to the floor.
All were bandages on a problem that kept creeping back up.
No more! Ballmer has solved it. He’s achieved the sports equivalent of splitting the atom. And it’s all thanks to the new halo video board inside the arena.
The massive band hanging from the top of the Inuit Dome is capable of firing t-shirts to any and every seat in the building. Let me say that again in my most Oprah voice: EVERY SEAT IN THE BUILDING GETS A(n equal chance at a) T-SHIRT.
“It’s unfair. It’s not right,” Steve Ballmer says about the regular t-shirt toss you see at NBA games. So what did the Clippers do? They put t-shirt cannons on the Halo Board that can apparently hit every seat in the arena so no one is left out. No, I’m not kidding! pic.twitter.com/6N5mO9psxa
It’s easy to clown on Ballmer — and the Clippers, in general — but to be honest, it’s silly attention to details like these that really will make all the difference for the paying customer.
Teams aren’t always going to contend to championships, and certainly Clippers fans know that well, but you can always make sure fans have an elite experience when attending a game.
The Clippers’ new home completely raises the bar off the court and it won’t be long before rival teams start trying to catch up.
There’s no amount of clout that makes this worth it.
Getting a private tour of the Clippers’ new $2 billion arena would probably be awesome.
The details on this thing are amazing. Anybody would want to see it — even if it’s not quite completely built out.
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The thing is, though, it’s probably not the greatest idea in the world to break in there and give yourself that private tour. It’s an even better idea not to do that and actually show your face on camera while doing it.
And, let’s just say you were to do that for whatever reason. You probably shouldn’t go about positing that footage on social media for everyone to see.
But that’s exactly what some teens who’ve become TikTok famous for breaking into arenas and stadiums have done. Now, it looks like they’re in some deep trouble.
The Los Angeles Clippers announced the plan to display California high school basketball jerseys in Intuit Dome when it opens in 2024.
The Los Angeles Clippers will finally be getting some jerseys in the rafters.
The team announced this week that they plan to display California high school jerseys from across California in its new stadium, Intuit Dome when it opens this year ahead of next season. The Clippers wrote on their website that the symbol will “honor the state’s rich history of youth basketball” and posted instructions for application.
California has a deep history of prep basketball, with Hall of Fame-caliber NBA players like Reggie Miller, Bill Walton, James Harden, and Jason Kidd coming from the Golden State, and others like Raymond Lewis and Tracy Murray who built lasting legacies solely off high school play. WNBA legends like Lisa Leslie and Diana Taurasi have also hailed from California high schools.
Intuit Dome, in Inglewood about 10 miles away from current home Crypto.com Arena, is what Bloomberg describes as a $2 billion passion project for owner Steve Ballmer. The billionaire told Bloomberg that “We can’t establish a sense of identity” around Crytpo.com arena, which is also home of the Los Angeles Lakers and hockey Los Angeles Kings.
Among chief issues of the team’s place at Crypto, where they moved under former owner Donald Sterling in 1984, is that the Clippers are one of just two teams (Toronto Raptors) who do not have any jerseys retired in a Ring of Honor-like setting. That, along with a dearth of championships, is in stark contrast to the Lakers, whose retired numbers and championship banners the Clippers cover with pictures of active players during games. Ballmer, worth $120 billion, can model this stadium to his vision.
How and where the high school jerseys will be displayed is not yet clear, though it will almost certainly not be in the rafters like a Ring of Honor. The most expensive basketball stadium ever will presumably have plenty of room for other museum-like experiences.
For as long as the LA Clippers have existed, the organization has operated in the shadow of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Clips have always been the second priority.
The two teams have always shared an arena, but it’s never felt like home for the Clippers. When the Lakers and Clippers play each other, it’s always a pro-Lakers crowd. When the Clippers have had home games, the team has had to cover up the Lakers’ championship banners.
Well, folks, starting next season that won’t be the case anymore. The Clippers will have a new home to play in. One the team can finally call its own.
Starting next season, the Clippers will enter the Intuit Dome. This is the arena Steve Ballmer has been working toward for years. It will finally open up to the public.
Here’s everything we know about the Clippers’ new home so far.
Social media can’t resist the urge to get these “fun guy” jokes off.
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The Los Angeles Clippers hosted a ceremony Tuesday to celebrate the installation of the last steel beam on their future home, the Intuit Dome.
With players in attendance, all eyes were predictably on Kawhi Leonard because of course they were. Everyone is always ready to see the next expressionless face the “fun guy” will make.
But can we leave Leonard alone until then? We don’t have to force every non-thing to be a thing. People are starting to turn his mere existence into a joke.
Steve Ballmer gave us actual good material Tuesday with how fired up he was about toilets. And still, there was no shortage of sports social media accounts posting photos and memes of Leonard doing absolutely nothing, like this or this or even this one.
The dude is literally just chilling. I found more humor in Russell Westbrook showing up to the ceremony for a building he’ll never play in.
As for the Leonard jokes, they’re long past the point of being funny. Let’s all collectively agree to move on to something else.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
As the Memphis Grizzlies await the return of Ja Morant from his indefinite absence, the team got some good news Wednesday, with the Glendale, Colorado, police department announcing Morant won’t face any criminal charges.
Now, everyone awaits the conclusion of the NBA’s investigation, which could result in a separate punishment for Morant if they find that the gun he flashed on an Instagram Live video was transported via team transportation.
However, if Morant is suspended, it doesn’t necessarily have to be an automatic 50-game ban, as one reporter incorrectly stated. FTW’s Bryan Kalbrosky wrote about there being no precedent for a suspension that long and outlined the punishments for past gun-related infractions.
“The main takeaway here is that if the NBA concludes that Morant had a firearm present at a team facility, like the team plane, Adam Silver has the power to suspend Morant for a definite or indefinite amount of time.
Silver has not handed out any gun-related suspensions. But his predecessor and mentor, former commissioner David Stern, did.”
Cavaliers (-2.5, -105) vs. Heat (+110), O/U 215.5, 7:30 PM ET
I’m looking at an incredibly low total for this game — the lowest of any game Wednesday night — and I’m still inclined to bet the under. These two teams rank in the bottom-three in pace in the NBA, leaving them both in the bottom six in points scored. And their respective defenses are really good. These teams combined for an average of 198 points in their first two games. Take the under.
Shootaround
— Pau Gasol wiped away tears watching his jersey retired next to Kobe’s
The sooner the Clippers are able to get out of Crypto.com Arena, the better.
First of all, because it doesn’t feel right typing that out at all. Why in the world would you include dot com in an arena name? Yikes. Staples Center wasn’t the greatest name in the world, but this is dreadful.
But secondly, the Clippers’ new arena looks incredible, y’all. The team broke ground on the “Intuit Dome” at the tail end of last year and the plans behind this thing seem pretty incredible. Every image of Steve Ballmer’s new $1.8 million arena seems like it’s coming right out of a sports fan’s dream.
That is especially the case with the new “halo” scoreboard the arena will apparently have.
In pretty much every sports setting you go to, there’s a scoreboard that holds a bunch of information. It obviously has the stats for every player in the game and key info like what quarter it is, how much time is left and how many timeouts a team has. That’s the basic stuff. Sometimes it’ll even have stats from around the league.
But the way the Clippers’ scoreboard is looking? They’ll probably be streaming Netflix live during the game from this joint or something. It shows you literally everything you can ask for.
Look at this thing, y’all.
Welcome to Intuit Dome! Our Halo Board will create one of the most intense live experiences in sports. pic.twitter.com/GP4sAytNeV
It’s a double-sized board broadcasting the game in 4k. The thing is nearly an acre in size. Like, this is completely ridiculous, y’all. It’s totally overboard. I…I love it.
I will say, the “Intuit Dome” name almost sounds as dumb as Crypto Dot Com arena. The only thing it’s missing is dot com, honestly. But I guess this is just the SponCon world we live in at work these days.
Anyway, the Clippers officially move into their new space in 2024 and, honestly, that day cannot get here soon enough.
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See the new pictures of the L.A. Clippers arena as the franchise moves away from the Los Angeles Lakers’ STAPLES Center.
The Los Angeles Lakers will soon be the lone NBA team playing in the STAPLES Center.
In 1999, the L.A. Clippers joined the Lakers to play its games in the same venue, but as new owner Steve Ballmer seeks a fresh identity for the team, a new arena is in the works.
The Clippers had previously announced it would move to Inglewood, Calif. to build an arena exclusively for the franchise, and that process moved one step closer.
The Clippers announced a 23-year naming rights deal with Intuit to call the arena the Intuit Dome. New graphics show what the area will look like inside and outside of the dome, via Sports Business Journal:
