Steve Ballmer has lofty goals for Clippers’ new arena
The Los Angeles Clippers are looking to build a state-of-the-art arena in Inglewood that would open in 2024, and team owner Steve Ballmer has some incredibly high expectations for the complex.
The project, which has been named the Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center, took a big step toward breaking ground on Tuesday when its environmental impact report was unanimously approved. According to Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times, Ballmer told the Inglewood City Council during a video presentation that he envisions the complex being “the single greatest place in the world for basketball.”
As part of a video presentation to the Inglewood City Council, Steve Ballmer said of the arena: “We want to simply make it the single greatest place in the world for basketball. A basketball palace with no peer.” https://t.co/s3rBjJqUEC
— Andrew Greif (@AndrewGreif) July 22, 2020
The Clippers’ current lease at Staples Center expires in the fall of 2024, and they are hoping to have their new arena open by then. There had been rumors at one point that Ballmer could move the team to a new city, but that is not going to happen.
When completed, the Inglewood complex should be something like SoFi Stadium, which is where the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers will play and located not far from the site. Ballmer had huge plans when he bought the Clippers in 2014, and he is making them a reality. We know he doesn’t enjoy sharing a town with the Lakers, so building a new arena will help him distance his team from them in many ways.
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