Clippers on cloud nine as arena plans get nod

Article posted by Coliseum, September 15^th, 2020

Image: LA Clippers

California’s (US) Inglewood City Council has given the final nod to setting up the Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center (IBEC).

The project, expected to break ground in summer of 2021, will open for the start of the 2024-25 National Basketball Association (NBA) season.

The Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center is a proposed 18,000 seat arena to be located in Inglewood, California, for the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA.

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The Los Angeles Clippers – also known as the LA Clippers – are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, US. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league’s Western Conference. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is an American men’s professional basketball league. It is composed of 30 teams and is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. It is the premier men’s professional basketball league in the world.

The world-class campus will boast an 18,000-seat basketball arena, team practice facility and corporate offices for the LA Clippers.

The Inglewood City Council’s unanimous approval of the Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA) spells out the terms for Murphy’s Bowl, the entity developing IBEC, to purchase the publicly-owned property within the arena site for $66.25 million.

Remarked Gillian Zucker, Clippers’ President, Business Operations, “Today is a new chapter for the Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center, as we move from the land use entitlement process and look towards construction.”

“Every part of IBEC is being designed with purpose – with an unapologetic intensity that will define the experience together for players, musical talent and fans alike. This arena will prove, beyond a shadow of doubt, that there is no replacement for live basketball and entertainment,” Zucker added.

The privately financed IBEC project will include a pièce de résistance facility that will be so designed as to provide fans total comfort and luxury, player experience, home court advantage and community.

IBEC will redefine the concept of live entertainment, raising the bar for live experiences all on its own. This facility par excellence will sit within an open, indoor-outdoor atmosphere which will go on to demonstrate what the world loves most about Southern California.

The campus in Inglewood will serve as a hub that will bring the Clippers organization together, with a new team practice facility and corporate offices.

In August, the Clippers announced a global partnership with CAA Sports, a division of Creative Artists Agency, to bring to market the naming rights for the arena.

IBEC will generate more than 7,000 full and part-time construction jobs and up to 1,500 permanent full and part-time jobs when the complex opens its doors.

IBEC will also create an estimated $260 million in annual economic activity for Inglewood and approximately $100 million in tax revenue over the first 15 years of operation.

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