After the Suns-Clippers season opener, Kevin Durant took some time to engage in a Q&A session. Without waiting for long, the 36-year-old sent his flowers to Steve Ballmer, stating “Steve Ballmer did a great job with this arena, it’s incredible, probably the best one I’ve been in. It’s good to have two LA teams with their own arenas.”

Despite plying his trade for 14 years in the NBA, the Slim Reaper gets to experience something new every day, and the $2 billion arena may have provided him with one experience he won’t forget, probably for the foreseeable future.

“We’re going to try to make this the most intimate, exciting place in the world to watch a basketball game. And I think we’re there. On the 23rd of October, when we open, that will be validated.” The expectations set by Steve Ballmer have already started to turn into reality. Built at the cost of a whopping $2 billion, the Intuit Dome at Inglewood, California, hosted its first-ever regular season game.

Having secured a home base for the Clippers, and not having to share an arena with the Lakers anymore, the richest owner of an NBA franchise may have been awaiting positive responses on his latest expensive product. Therefore, it certainly would have made his day for one of the very first words of approval to come from a member of the rival franchise!

For 25 years, the LA Clippers had to share the Crypto.com Arena (or Staples Center, as it was originally known) with the Lakers and the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings. By 2017, an agreement was reached with the City of Inglewood for a new, basketball-specific arena for the Clippers. Since the franchise would be getting an exclusive home for the first time since 1999, Steve Ballmer made the most of it.

The area around the Intuit Dome is an 80,000-square-foot outdoor plaza, an outdoor hoops court of regulation size, an amphitheater-styled staircase, etc. Having looked at one of the biggest problems that arenas have faced when hosting huge crowd-size events, the former Microsoft CEO placed special emphasis on the toilets. During an event back in March 2023, he exclaimed, “1,160 toilets and urinals. Three times the NBA average! We do not want people waiting in line. We want people to get back to their damn seats.”

The highlight of the Dome, however, is a state-of-the-art Halo Board that adorns the top of the playing area. Possessing a 360-degree build to allow score access to every attendee, the board is also reportedly fitted with a T-shirt cannon!

The seats boast charging amenities, along with buttons on the armrest to be used by fans when participating in live competitions. To top it all off, the popcorn that may already have started selling has been personally tested and approved by Stephen Curry himself.

Having earlier placed the Crypto.Com Arena (Staples Center) dead last in his rankings of ‘popcorn analysis of the arena’, fans will certainly be expecting where would he place the Intuit Dome in the future.

Despite everything that went into raising the brand-new arena in Inglewood, it failed to give the Clippers a home base advantage during their very first regular season game of the 2024-25 season. The credit for the same goes to Kevin Durant himself, who secured a score of 25 points and 7 rebounds to his name.

Thanks to the assistance from Bradley Beal and Devin Booker, who made 24 and 15 points respectively, he was able to lead the Phoenix Suns to their first win of the season. Durant certainly would not have anything bad to say about the Intuit Dome, for now. After all, along with providing them with the win, the arena seems to have taken good care of them, despite being the visiting team.

What amenities did Kevin Durant and the Suns squad receive at the Intuit Dome?

According to the clips highlighted by FOS’ Colin Salao, Kevin Durant and the other Phoenix players certainly seemed to have had a good time. Giving viewers an inner view of the visiting team’s locker room, Salao revealed that the area has been fitted with a separate gym and a recovery area, accompanied by an X-ray and MRI rooms to possibly check any injuries that might take place on the court. A hot tub along with a cold plunge has also been provided to give the visiting team a full Hydrotherapy experience.

Even the referees have been provided something extra when officiating a game at Intuit Dome. The officials get a comfortable space allotted to them that contains a conference room along with a family area. The Intuit Dome has successfully given the LA Clippers a new chapter to base their championship title trajectory on. Now, it is up to the squad to make the best use of said opportunity.