The Los Angeles Clippers will be playing at their new arena, the $2 billion Intuit Dome, from the 2024-25 season. During the press conference where it was announced that the arena would also be hosting the 2026 All-Star Game, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer revealed the team would be tracking their fans and giving them discounts.
“Stay in your seat or get up. You get up, we’re gonna know that you stood up,” Ballmer said. “As long as you want us to. You got to give us the permission. We’ll know that you get up. We know that you cheer, we know how loudly you cheer. If you’re good on those things, we’ll give you little discounts around the shop.”
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That’s an interesting decision to give fans an incentive to cheer as loud as they can and be on their feet to support the team. Ballmer says the fans have a crucial role to play, because if they give their best, then it will help the players. He is pulling out all the stops to ensure the experience at the Intuit Dome will be unlike anything we have seen in the NBA.
The arena will also have a section called “The Wall.” It will host 51 uninterrupted rows of fans and this will be the view from the top of it.
From the top of The Wall pic.twitter.com/s3M2wEjAI2
— Law Murray ❓ (@LawMurrayTheNU) January 16, 2024
It won’t be possible for just anyone to get in here, though, as Ballmer and the Clippers have made some rather strict rules, as per the NBA.
No fans from opposing teams would be allowed to sit there and the fans seated there can’t even cheer for the other team. They won’t be allowed to even wear any gear that supports the opponent. Those who break these rules would lose access to the section.
Also, only fans with a Chuckmark would be even allowed to buy tickets for this section. To qualify for that, you’d need to fulfill three of five conditions:
1. Show them you have Clippers gear.
2. Subscribe to the Full Court Press newsletter or SMS.
3. Follow the Clippers on Instagram.
4. Subscribe to ClipperVision or must have attended a game in the last three years.
5. Correctly answer a trivia question about the Clippers’ mascot, Chuck.
The Chuckmark also comes with privileges like discounted concessions at the arena for the 2024-25 season and early access to playoff tickets.
Tickets can also only be resold at the Clippers’ Ticketmaster marketplace for Chuckmark-certified fans. The tickets can be transferred to individuals without a Chuckmark, but if the person who attended broke the rules for the section, then the original ticket holder would lose their Chuckmark as well as access to “The Wall.”
It’s a pretty clear message from the Clippers, that they only want the die-hard fans in that section. If this proves to be a success, then it wouldn’t be surprising to me if other teams start to go with this approach as well.
Whatever you may think of Ballmer, you can’t deny that he is doing everything within his power to transform this franchise. For the longest time, the Clippers had one of the worst owners in the league in Donald Sterling and now they have one of the best.
Ballmer had emphasized the need for the Clippers to step out of the Los Angeles Lakers’ shadow, and the Intuit Dome is the first big step toward that goal.
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