It was a balmy Saturday night in Janurary, infact it was the first Saturday night of the year. As we drove down Prarie Blvd, the red and blue ambient light from the dome was beckoning us like the north star. As a basketball fan but more importantly as a Clipper fan. The Intuit dome feels like home. It has the feeling of the Sports Arena.
Just being in the Plaza with the giant multipurpose video board towering over a full court baseketball court. The energy of Clipper fans all gathered in a space we can call our own. Steve Ballmers vision of a mecca for basketball is personified in this building. I had to take a couple shots on the court, of course… and let’s just say I play better on an indoor court.
Walking into the arena was seamless. The staff at the Main enterance was fun and cheery. We passed on visiting the Coors Light bar in that main lobby outside of the main concourse and under the escelator to heaven. (It’s what i’ve nicknamed the six story escelator that will ascend you into the terrace level.) We then made our way into the main concourse with the goal of finding our highschool jerseys.
A cool feature at the Intuit dome is the highschool jersey wall, every highschool in California recieved the opportunity to send in a jersey to be displayed. Not every highshool jersey is up there but about 90% of the highschools in the state are represented. (With space for more.)
After we located our schools and a quick stop into one of the many bathrooms, we entered into the bowl of the arena. It wasn’t the section we were sitting in, but I wanted to see what the space was like in the main lower bowl and club seating areas. The space was adequate, I stand at around 6'2 with the majority of my height in my legs, the legroom for me felt the same as the legroom at Crypto.com arena.
But the HALO board is huge! It’s bigger and more vibrant than it looks on tv and videos. Back out on the main concourse, we popped into one of the “FAST BREAK” locations just to check it out, it’s like a very fancy and high-tech 7-eleven. Everytime you grab something for purchase a chime goes off, signaling that you’ve been charged. And then you just… walk out. It’s weird, but it is quick.
One of the things that I admire about the thought process when designing this arena is keeping people moving. And having multiple spaces for people to go. It keeps the hallways and high traffic areas moving and it prevents a bottle neck.
We sat in the lofts which is a premium seating offering at Intuit. The seats are located above the single row of “neat suites.” The seats are a slightly bigger and are close to the bathrooms. The Halo board is directly infront of you and feels like a movie screen. Views from the seats were good, you’re sitting at a “tv camera” angle looking down at the court.
Best part of the game was seing Kawhi back in the starting line up and of course a Clippers win. So regardless if you’re a Clippers fan, if you enjoy the game of basketball, you’ll enjoy watching a game at the new basketball mecca, the Intuit Dome.
