USA

Bruno Mars plays in LA Clippers' new Inglewood home, Intuit Dome opening draws thousands – Orange County Register

userAugust 16, 2024
Bruno Mars plays in LA Clippers' new Inglewood home, Intuit Dome opening draws thousands – Orange County Register

Finally the wait is over.

The Intuit Dome, a state-of-the-art basketball arena and concert venue, opens.

The $2 billion new home of the Los Angeles Clippers held its grand opening on Thursday, August 15 with a star-studded, red-carpet, ribbon-cutting ceremony culminating in a performance by Grammy Award winner Bruno Mars, the first of two concerts to mark the grand opening of the new Los Angeles-area facility.

The Intuit Dome is the newest addition to Inglewood's Hollywood Park Sports & Entertainment Complex, located at 3930 W. Century Blvd. The massive project, which has been in the planning stages since 2021 and is located just south of Kia Forum and SoFi, opened to thousands of fans on Thursday, and many more will soon be walking through its shiny doors.

The festivities-filled evening celebrating the grand opening began with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the plaza near the arena's entrance.

“Standing here tonight, I'm honestly overwhelmed by the imagery of a vision coming to life and a dream coming true,” said Jillian Zucker, CEO of Halo Sports & Entertainment. “The Intuit Dome is for Clippers fans and concert goers, but most of all it's for the entire community.”

The state-of-the-art facility features five basketball courts, an 86,000-square-foot practice and training center and the first-of-its-kind, lighted, double-sided scoreboard, the “Halo Board,” which covers nearly an acre of 38,375 square feet surrounding the arena.

1 of twenty two

Opening night at the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, in Inglewood, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Enlarge

This will be the first time the Clippers will be playing somewhere other than Crypto.com Arena since the 1998-99 season, when they shared their home stadium with city rivals the Lakers.

Clippers fans will be able to watch the team in the new arena on October 23rd when they face the Phoenix Suns.

“I'm excited,” Clippers owner Steve Ballmer said as he took the stage.

“This is our home, but we knew it had to be more than just basketball,” Ballmer said. The arena will be the future of live entertainment in Southern California.

“I think this is the best basketball facility ever built,” he added.

With his trademark enthusiasm, Ballmer told the crowd about the attention to detail that went into the facility, from the halo boards to the design of each of the 17,700 seats to the efficiency of the restrooms — details he said he hopes fans will notice when they attend a game or concert at the Intuit Dome for the first time.

Both Zucker and Ballmer emphasized the importance of the facility being an asset to the community.

The Intuit Dome will be the home for the Clippers' 2024-25 season, which begins in October, and has also been selected to host the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, which city officials have previously said they expect will bring more than $350 million to the local economic impact.

A bird's-eye view of the Clippers' new home court at the Intuit Dome. (Photo courtesy of the LA Clippers)
A bird's-eye view of the LA Clippers' new home court at the Intuit Dome. (Photo courtesy of the LA Clippers)

This is Inglewood's fourth new venue in 10 years, Mayor James Butts said. The Intuit Dome will join other major venues such as SoFi Stadium, Kia Forum and YouTube Theater.

“We're very grateful and very pleased to have such a great team, organization and new community leaders,” Butt said. The mayor was joined by other members of the Inglewood City Council, including Inglewood Councilwoman Tina McKinner, D-Inglewood.

The backdrop for the ceremony was a steel-and-wood sculpture of a clipper ship with a basketball goal, an artwork by Glenn Kaino called “Sails,” just one of the arena's many sculptures, murals and digital displays by local artists that blend LA's sports and arts cultures.

It's traditional to pop a bottle of champagne on the bow at the christening ceremony of a new ship, Zucker said, to bring good fortune to both the ship and its crew. To mark the Intuit Dome's maiden voyage, Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue popped a bottle of champagne on the bow.

Following the ribbon cutting and streamers, the red carpet was rolled out at the Intuit Dome for many celebrities, including Clippers players Kawhi Leonard, Angela Bassett, Chelsea Handler, Halle Bailey, Megan Trainor, Simu Liu and Tobey Maguire.

The opening night event culminated with a three-hour concert by Mars, a music icon who began his career in Inglewood. Following Mars, a diverse line-up of 31 acts, including Olivia Rodrigo and Peso Pluma, is expected to cater to a wide range of musical tastes.

Mars' fans, or “hooligans” as they're affectionately known, were ready to test out the Intuit Dome's equipment, with their own exclusive Bruno Mars shirts, but of course what they were most excited to see was Mars' performance, which covered a wide range of musical genres from funk and R&B to reggae and rock.

“I'm so excited. This is my second time seeing him live,” said Reggie Zavala, who traveled from Bakersfield to see Mars perform.

Zavala said he was impressed with the new facility.

“I was a little nervous because it's so new and I didn't know what to expect, but I'm ready,” she said. “It's so amazing and beautiful.”

userAugust 16, 2024
Back to top button