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Intuit Dome’s diagrid and roof panel construction, July 2023. | Photo courtesy of NBA
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The Intuit Dome in Inglewood, which will open in August as the new home of the Clippers, will host the NBA All-Star Game in 2026, the team and league officials announced Tuesday.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer made the announcement during a news conference at the under-construction arena just south of SoFi Stadium.
“It is such an honor for us to be able to host an All-Star Game, I can’t even tell you,” Ballmer said. ” I was giddy when I heard it was possible, and even giddier when the league told us that we’d have the All-Star Game here.”
Silver said the All-Star Game is more than just a single game.
“People in L.A. are familiar with our All-Star festivities,” he said. “These games are distributed in more than 200 countries. It’s not just the All-Star Game itself. There are events throughout the week.”
Silver said he is anxious to see the Intuit Dome in action, noting that the building plans are top of the line throughout, including “technology that is unmatched in any facility I’ve ever seen.”
“I can just say that having been, I think, to pretty much every basketball arena in the world, probably, over the course of my many years at the NBA, I eagerly await the first opportunity to see a Clippers game here in this fantastic Intuit Dome,” he said. “And of course, all NBA fans are eager to see an NBA All-Star Game here.”
Ballmer took advantage of the news conference to tout the plans for the building, highlighting its roughly 1,500 restroom facilities and a steep section of 51 rows of seats known as “The Wall” that will be restricted to Clipper fans who will have to show proof of their allegiance before being admitted to the section.
“We want this to be the penultimate basketball experience on the planet — as good as it gets, the pinnacle, the peak,” Ballmer said. “Now, of course, some year somebody will bypass us, but man, we’ve put everything into getting ahead of that in this building.”
The Los Angeles area last played host to the NBA All-Star Game in 2018 at the then-Staples Center, now known as Crypto.com Arena, in downtown Los Angeles.
Ballmer and Silver were joined at the announcement by Inglewood Mayor James Butts and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
“This All Star weekend will be the greatest event ever held in the greatest arena in the world, the Intuit Dome,” Butts said. “Together, Mayor Bass, L.A. and Inglewood will continue to bring international sports entertainment to the county of Los Angeles and to the world for decades to come.”
Bass noted that the L.A. area will be a host city for the 2026 World Cup, then will host the 2027 Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium, then the Summer Olympics in 2028.
“This event (the NBA All-Star Game) brought more than $100 million of economic impact when our region last hosted it six years ago. Looking ahead, NBA All-Star Weekend 2026 is projected to generate more than $350 million in economic and media impact for the greater Los Angeles area.”
