INGLEWOOD, Calif. – In what may be the most technologically advanced stadium in the world, one of the clearest indications that things are different can be heard in the restrooms.

Unlike many professional sports stadiums that transmit game sound through restroom speakers, Intuit Dome, the brand new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, plays a different soundtrack for fans using its more than 1,100 touchless restrooms and urinals: pop music.

The choice was intentional. Although Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft and owner of the Clippers since 2014, designed the $2 billion arena with all the bells and whistles, he mainly wanted a place for exuberantly passionate basketball fans like him. To create that, incentives designed to get fans “back to their damn seats,” as Ballmer once said, were baked into the design — including, but not limited to, a lack of toilet play-by-play.

The result is an arena with ambitions as lofty as the franchise’s dreams of winning a first NBA championship. Intuit Dome wants to change fans’ habits and the way they are used to rooting for the home team.

“It kind of feels like an NBA Disneyland, versus (Crypto.com Arena, the former home of the Clippers, shared with the Los Angeles Lakers) where it’s a multi-team, multi-sport arena,” said Oscar Burrows-Rangel, a longtime Clippers fan. “This is dedicated to basketball, and everywhere you look, you know you’re at a basketball game. You know you’re in a basketball arena. You know you’re here for the game.”

In professional sports, the game can feel secondary as teams commandeer the spending of more casual fans. Wide open halls overlooking the court encourage wandering. When the Phoenix Suns completed a $240 million renovation of their home arena in 2021, they added what is described as the largest sports bar in Arizona, a 60-foot-long bar in a corner of the concourse, overlooking the court. State Farm Arena, in Atlanta, houses a bar open to its highest-paying patrons that sits on the arena’s literal hardwood floor, just steps away from the benches.

Ballmer also added large, breathtaking attractions, led by a halo scoreboard with the equivalent of an acre of LED lighting. A 25,000-foot plaza outside the main entrance includes a playing field for pick-up games. Just as unique, however, are the design choices that deserve less attention but also impact the customer experience, said longtime Clippers fans who attended the Oct. 23 regular-season opener against Phoenix.

When the game starts, even the most expensive bunker suites on the field level of Intuit Dome are not equipped with big-screen televisions — a push to get fans into the suites’ seats if they want to watch James Harden run pick-and-rolls with Ivica Zubac. To reduce the time fans want to spend outside their seats, Ballmer has pushed to make it more comfortable to sit in, by increasing legroom and getting closer to the action, with a fan in the 20th row, about 13 meters closer to the field. than at the Clippers’ previous arena, the team said.

Each of the 17,927 seats is equipped with a four-button controller. Inspired by Microsoft’s Xbox, the directional controller is embedded in the armrest, allowing fans to participate in games on the scoreboard during game breaks. According to a team spokesperson, just over 80% of the armrest controls had been used after two preseason games and the Oct. 23 regular season opener against Phoenix. There are also devices throughout the building that measure audio levels and can even determine which individual fans are the loudest.

Ballmer has also admitted to being obsessive about cutting lines. He has said that the number of toilets and urinals is three times that of the average NBA arena. Concession stands are equipped with facial recognition, so fans who have linked their wallets to the arena’s app can walk in and out without bypassing the registers.

“You kind of know you can leave and come back without missing too much of the game,” Burrows-Rangel said.

To sit in “The Wall,” a 51-row section that rises on a steep slope from near the opponent’s bench to the top row of the stadium, fans must pass a certification test to prove they are Clippers are fans. Inside The Wall, there is a 13-row supporter area directly behind the basket with European football-inspired raised handrails to encourage fans who wish to stand. Erica Okeith, who has watched the team since it played at the Los Angeles Sports Arena more than a quarter-century ago, was among the fans watching the first regular-season game against Phoenix from the fan section.

She had to agree to terms that reward rabid fandom. The first 175 fans with section passes who arrive at least an hour early will receive free parking. In addition, the earliest-arriving seats earn those closest to the court. But those who fail to show up for their supporters section bookings more than five times may have their passes cancelled.

“I’m the type of fan that likes to stand up during games anyway, and in other places in the arena, other fans usually don’t like that,” Okeith said. “It’s an advantage for me to know that I can stand up and no one is going to tell me to sit down or that I have a problem with it.”

Suns star Kevin Durant complimented the Wall design as “insane” after playing in the arena in the first regular-season game, and Okeith also noted Clippers players, who fans recognized in the section. It wasn’t mandatory to stand for the entire match, but it was the intention, she said. Okeith noticed fans in other sections following the chants and movements of the supporters section and believes this will catch on.

In the upper rows of The Wall was Jason Holzgang, 24, who had been attending Clippers games since 2005. When details of The Wall were announced years earlier, Holzgang was skeptical about how much home advantage it would provide. But in his first game he already felt his usual playing habits change.

“With me in The Wall I’m like, ‘I gotta keep yelling, I gotta keep yelling,’ when normally I would chill out a little bit,” Holzgang said.

Kinks were still being ironed out during the opening week of the arena’s regular season. Some customers reported some issues with the hassle-free payment system at the grab-and-go concession stands, as they were initially unable to walk out as expected. Some who had linked their wallets and ages in the app and expected to be able to buy alcohol using just the facial recognition software ‘GameFace ID’ said they were told they needed their physical identification. After some merchandise and apparel items quickly sold out, the team sought to improve real-time inventory tracking, the team spokesperson said. Some fans saw improvements after the opening game, but others took to social media to address issues that persisted in the way the app and contactless checkouts worked.

One of the key elements of watching a Clippers game that Ballmer wants to change involves what is and isn’t heard in other parts of the building. For years at Crypto.com Arena, large crowds of fans supporting opponents such as Golden State, New York or Boston often drowned out the noise created by home fans. It was for Daniel Albitres that one of the first signs that things might be different came when it was reported by The Wall on October 23 that ushers had removed a fan who had tried to sneak in a Suns jersey because he had violated the policy against wearing clothing. opponent’s equipment in the supporters’ area.

Albitres looked around and saw only the equipment of the Clipper. That was a first.

“It’s nice to have a place where you know you’re going to have fans,” Albitres said. “For the first time I saw someone with a different shirt being thrown out. It was probably the highlight of my day.”