The Brief

For all the crazy game schedules, relocations, and years of splitting the court with their rival team, the L.A. Clippers finally have a place to call home.

The basketball team’s shiny new $2 billion Intuit Dome officially opens today, with a Bruno Mars kickoff concert. According to Clippers owner and billionaire Steve Ballmer, “fans and players together deserve the ultimate home court. You’re going to have it here in Inglewood.”

Here’s everything there is to know about the Intuit Dome — how to get there, what’s inside, and what's on the menu before the inaugural home game on Oct. 14.

Bruno Mars performs the Intuit Dome's inaugural concert.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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Getting there

The Intuit Dome is located next door to SoFi Stadium between the 405 and the 110 freeways. Once you’re there, leave your car at the main parking structure on Prairie Avenue and 102nd Street. It connects directly to the Dome’s plaza entrance with a pedestrian bridge.

If you aren’t on four wheels, don’t worry. Intuit is surrounded by 10 bus stops. The Metro 117, 211 and 212 buses will all get you within a short walk.

Refik Anadol 's digital artwork, 'Living Arena,' looms over a public basketball court at the Intuit Dome.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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When you arrive

Once you enter the plaza, you’ll see the massive, paneled dome. It's one of the world’s most expensive arenas, and it shows. It's designed to look like the net of a basketball hoop, and at night, it’ll be lit up with thousands of lights that move in animated sequence, bringing the structure to life.

But wait! Don’t be so quick to get to your seat just yet. There’s a ton to do in the outdoor plaza before the game. Looking like something out of Dune, it’s bordered by Roman steps and will include two bars, a restaurant, and a 5,000-square-foot team store. The entrance is anchored by a full-sized regulation basketball court — open for public use — with a screen that stretches key-to-key.

So have a drink, grab a jersey, or catch a pickup game before letting the professionals take the rock.

Kyungmi Shin’s mural, 'Spring to Life,' is one of six public art installations at the Intuit Dome.

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Courtesy Los Angeles Clippers

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The Clippers spared no detail in sourcing six public art installations by local artists for the plaza. Many of the pieces serve as a reflection of the city. The digital artwork "Living Arena" of Refik Anadol uses flight information from LAX and Inglewood weather data. "Cultural Playground" a mural by Michael Massenburg captures LA’s cultural identity, and Kyungmi Kim’s stained glass mosaic,-"Spring to Life," draws inspiration from Centinela Springs, an ancient water source that supported the Tongva people. At the entrance of the dome itself, you can’t miss Glenn Kaino’s “Sails,” a giant clipper boat that recalls the origins of the team’s name. And of course there's the graphic motion of the Dome itself, which comes alive thanks to Jennifer Steinkamp’s "Swoosh."

Under the Dome

Now comes the real fun. Once you’re through the gates of the Dome, you’ll see the indoor concourse lined with thousands of framed jerseys. There's one for each high school team in California, so try to find your alma mater on the way to your seat.

The Halo Board at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood is lit up for the first time at its unveiling July 19.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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On the inside of the arena, watch where you’re going. You’ll likely be distracted by the 40,000-square-foot double sided Halo Board dominating your view. That's a full acre of a quarter billion LED lights. If you still can't visualize that, just imagine 4,000 60-inch TV’s floating in a ring above your head. No matter where you sit, you’re going to feel like you’re hovering over the court, and you won’t have to squint to catch replays, player stats, or fan-cams.

The inspiration for Intuit comes from an unlikely source — an 87-year-old calculus teacher in Detroit. Jerry Hansen was Ballmer’s math teacher and football coach in high school. He gave Ballmer the idea behind Intuit Dome.

“He said ‘Don't forget the real fan. Don't forget the folks who sit up high. Don't make it all about the folks who are just paying a lot of money,’ and that really meant a lot to me,” Ballmer said at a media event last month.

Settle in for the show

Once you’re at your seat, the coziness of the stadium might surprise you. That’s because a seat in row 20 is about a half-court closer to the action than it is at the Crypto.com arena.

The arena offers the most leg room in the NBA, whether you’re sitting court side or in the upper bowl. Each seat has a USB port to charge your phone, a built-in controller to play games on the halo, and a decibel meter that gauges the movement and sound of each individual fan. The loudest and rowdiest will be rewarded with discounts on food and merch.

When you get to your seat, make sure to scream and stomp until you turn blue. If your decibel levels are high enough, you’ll get a notification on the Clippers app that you earned half-off on an L.A. street dog, or a Kawhi Leonard bobblehead, for example.

K-Town Chicken and waffle fries at the self service concession area at the Intuit Dome.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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What to eat and where to get it 

The concessions at Intuit are fully automated, and grab and go markets are everywhere. You'll just pick what you want from a buffet and walk right out. Tap your phone at the gate to check out, or you can pay with lung power by cashing in your well-earned discount through your Clippers account.

The entire journey was designed to take two minutes or less, and there are 200 shot clocks stationed around the Dome so you don’t miss a play.

Solar Panels atop the Intuit Dome in Inglewood generate power for the fully electric arena.

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Courtesy Los Angeles Clippers

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A net-zero stadium

After buying the Clippers in 2014, Ballmer made the decision to build a new, fully carbon neutral home court for the team before the 2024-25 NBA season, when their lease at Crypto.com arena was set to expire.

To pull that off, the Dome was blanketed in solar panels which generate most of its energy. What it can’t produce, the Clippers purchase from renewable sources, powering everything down to the electric cooking equipment. Plus, the arena is “naturally acclimatized” so as to use less energy on cooling. The team even bought 26 fuel-friendly tugboats for the Port of Los Angeles to offset emissions.

“We actually took carbon dioxide out of the environment and put it into the concrete foundation in this building,” Ballmer told LAist.

How to get tickets 

Tickets aren’t on sale just yet for the upcoming NBA season, unless you’re planning to buy a season membership. Single game tickets will likely be available for purchase later in August.

You can check out the Intuit Dome website for this season’s concerts. It’ll kick off this week with back to back Bruno Mars shows. Heavy hitters Olivia Rodrigo and Usher are scheduled to perform in the coming months.

May gray has come and gone, and now it's time for June gloom.

Overcast skies will be present this morning, especially along the beaches and valleys closest to the coast. Otherwise, we're in for a partly cloudy afternoon.

Today's temperatures at L.A. County beaches will stay around 66 to 71 degrees, and reach 76 to 80 degrees for places more inland.

In Orange County, expect similar temperatures with highs from 67 to 74 degrees for Huntington Beach and surrounding areas. More inland areas like Anaheim and Garden Grove will see temperatures of up to 79 degrees.

Moving on to L.A. County valleys, expect high temperatures in the low to mid 80s.

In the Inland Empire, temperatures will range 80 to 89 degrees.

Election Day is here, but now comes the waiting.

Do you have something to watch on Netflix? Maybe you've been meaning to pick up a hobby — how about crochet? Whatever you do, take a deep breath and keep busy because it could be days (or weeks) before we get some California election results.

The state is often knocked by the rest of the country as being "slow" to count votes. But here's the deal: that's a feature, not a bug, of the election system.

The backstory

Things take a while here largely because California works so hard to expand the ways people can vote. For example:

• Californians in recent years overwhelmingly vote by mail — nearly 90% of votes cast in the 2024 presidential election were mail-in ballots. In that same year's primary the percentage was just as high. Those ballots can be postmarked up to and including Election Day. They're counted as long as the ballot arrives within seven days (for the June primary, that's June 9).
• California offers same-day voter registration at any voting center. These new voters must cast a provisional ballot, which is counted once election officials confirm their eligibility (they are overwhelmingly accepted — for example, Los Angeles County reports that historically between 85% to 90% have been counted.
• Voters also have the right to cast provisional ballots if there's any problem on election day — like if poll workers aren't able to void an outstanding mail-in ballot, or if there’s any issue calling up voter information from e-pollbooks. Again (see above), provisionals take longer to process because eligibility has to be confirmed.
• Vote-by-mail ballots require signature matching. When the one received doesn't match the one on file, county registrars must contact that voter to let them know — and give them the chance to correct it.
• And, with more than 23 million registered voters, we're really, really big. In the 2024 general election more than 16 million Californians voted (down from nearly 18 million in the 2020 presidential election). Either way, that’s more people than the total populations of all but three other states.

Why things have sped up, some

But things have sped up considerably in the 30 counties that have adopted a 2016 law called the Voter's Choice Act, including L.A., Orange and Riverside counties. In recent elections, the changes associated with that law — like voters not being locked into a designated polling location — drastically cut down the number of provisional ballots cast, which helped move things along faster than they had before.

A closer look at ballot counting times in California where an increasing number of vote-by-mail ballots has slowed ballot counts.

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Courtesy California Voter Foundation

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Still, accuracy and a commitment to "expanding the franchise" — translation: allowing more people to vote — means the process is not designed to produce instantaneous results.

Why you should take a deep breath Election Night

You'll have to get that endorphin hit elsewhere on June 2.

A few things to keep in mind: You may recall that during the 2024 primary, it took about a week to call the results for L.A. City Council races in District 4, where incumbent Nithya Raman was fighting to avoid a runoff election, and District 14, where challenger Ysabel Jurado wound up overtaking incumbent Kevin de León by just a few hundred votes.

It took an even longer 15 days to call the results of Prop. 1, during which opponents conceded, walked back that concession, and conceded again when the measure won by a razor-thin 0.4% margin. And it took 23 days to call the second-place winner for Orange County's 45th congressional district — it ultimately went to Democrat Derek Tran who went on to beat Republican Michelle Steel in the general election. Tran is now up for reelection and rematch with Steel is considered likely in November.

Depending on how close some of these races end up being, we may face similar waits this election cycle.

TL;DR: Officially, county and state election officials have until July 10 to certify election results — including a mandatory audit that requires hand-counting all of the ballots at 1% of precincts. Nevertheless, you're going to see a lot of national media headlines about California's relative "slowness." Brush it off. We have sunshine, beaches, and a highly enfranchised population.