INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — The flashy new Intuit Dome opened its doors to basketball fans for the first time Monday night as the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Dallas Mavericks 110-96 in a preseason game in front of 13,400 fans.
The arena has been hosting concerts since August, but this is the first game in the more than $2 billion vision of Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. Fans streamed in through doors using facial recognition. A double-sided halo board showed photos, videos, statistics and more.
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A commercial jet passes by the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Fans enter the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, before the team's NBA preseason basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
An aerial view shows the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Fans play basketball outside the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, before the team's NBA preseason basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Fans walk on a bridge to the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, before the team's NBA preseason basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Two fans take a selfie outside the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, before the team's NBA preseason basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The Clippers were one of three tenants of the crypto.com Arena, sharing space with the Lakers and the Kings. Now they’ve got their own address.
“It’s a great feeling to have a place to call home. Guys are very excited about it,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “Our whole organization is excited about it. Tonight our fans get the chance to see a part of it. You have a chance to have our own place we call home. You can leave your shoes in the locker room and come back tomorrow and they’ll be there. We have our own place and own building and everything is secure.”
Derrick Jones Jr. — who signed with the Clippers in the offseason — scored 12 points.
“I love it. ... The arena is amazing,” Jones Jr. said. “I definitely like it. It’s probably one of the best I’ve ever stepped foot in and the practice facility, too. I’m glad to be able to play here in the Intuit Dome and be the first team to play here.”
On “60 Minutes,” which aired Sunday, Ballmer showed off his new building, which he hopes will give his NBA team a boost.
“Everything in my instinct says it will help our team, our basketball team, if our crowd team can really get into it and give them energy,” Ballmer said.
Ballmer was there and sat courtside under one of the baskets, which is about the same spot he sat at the previous building. When tne Clippers' Ivica Zubac made a hook shot in the second quarter, Ballmer displayed his trademark fist pumps and enthusiasm.
As fans entered the arena, they found an 80,000-square-foot outdoor plaza with a basketball court that’s open to the public.
Patricia Blakemore was jumping up and down when she arrived in the arena.
“It’s so high tech,” said Blakemore, who lives in nearby Manhattan Beach. “I have to say one of the things that makes me exceptionally happy is that from the moment we parked our car to get in here, the staff has been very helpful.”
When asked how long he’s been a Clippers fan, Eric Swallow said since Monday. He just bought season tickets.
“It’s a new stadium and it’s close to Manhattan Beach,” Swallow said. That was all it took for the Clippers to gain a new fan.
Estelle Talleu and Matteo Decarlini came from France to visit Los Angeles and go to the game.
“I love basketball, and I wanted to see L.A. and this atmosphere,” Decarlini said. “In France, it’s not the same. There’s nothing like this. This arena is so big.”
Talleu loved the halo board: “It’s amazing.”
She was taking lots of videos, as were many fans in the nearly 18,000-seat arena.
There’s also an abundance of bathrooms, and Ballmer boasted about the 1,400 toilets on “60 Minutes.” There’s good reason.
“I really hate it when people wait in line,” Ballmer told “60 Minutes.” “Waiting in line for toilets, I think is — it stops people from getting back into the game. People get frustrated.”
The Intuit Dome is in an area that’s exploding with sports and entertainment. It’s less than a mile from Sofi Stadium — where the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers call home — and The Kia Forum, which hosts concerts and used to be home to the Lakers.
The arena is carbon-free and cashless and has all the bells and whistles.
Juvenal Martinez, who is 14, came to the game with his uncle.
“The arena is good. I like it. I like all the technology and the facial scan to get in,” he said.
There were some hiccups, of course. During the first first quarter, the halo board had the score at 19-19 in the first quarter, but the score was actually 23-22 and that score was correct in many other places around the arena. The score was updated within a couple of minutes.
Ballmer broke ground on the arena in 2021 and it opened its doors in August. It is schedule to host many big events, including the 2026 All-Star Game and basketball for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“This is beautiful,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “To be able to practice here (Sunday) and have shootaround here, they did an incredible job. I think Clippers fans should be happy. When you look at fan experience it will be like no other. It will be exciting to be the first visiting team to experience that.”
Mavericks stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and the Clippers' Kawhi Leonard didn’t play.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
A commercial jet passes by the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Fans enter the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, before the team's NBA preseason basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
An aerial view shows the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Fans play basketball outside the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, before the team's NBA preseason basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Fans walk on a bridge to the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, before the team's NBA preseason basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Two fans take a selfie outside the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, before the team's NBA preseason basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea blew up the northern parts of inter-Korean roads no longer in use on Tuesday, South Korea said, after the rivals exchanged threats of destruction amid rising animosities over North Korea’s claim that South Korea flew drones over its capital.
The roads’ demolition is a display of North Korea’s growing loathing of South Korea’s conservative government, as its leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to sever relations with South Korea and abandon the goal of achieving peaceful Korean unification.
Observers say it’s still unlikely for Kim to launch preemptive, large-scale attacks on South Korea, because that would certainly invite massive retaliation by the more superior South Korea-U.S. force that will pose a threat to his survival.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also said South Korea's military fired within southern sections of the border in response to the explosions. Its statement did not give details on the firing. It could have been an attempt to avert cross-border fire by North Korea. It wasn't immediately known whether North Korea has made any response.
South Korea’s military said it is bolstering its readiness and surveillance posture in coordination with the United States.
Video provided by South Korea’s military showed a cloud of white and gray smoke emerging from the explosion at a road near the border town of Kaesong and North Korea sending trucks and excavators to clear out the debris. Another video showed smoke emerging from a coastal road near the Korea’s eastern border.
North Korea has a history of staging choreographed events to destroy facilities on its soil as a political message.
In 2020, North Korea blew up an empty, South Korean-built liaison office building just north of the border in retaliation for South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. In 2018, North Korea demolished tunnels at its nuclear testing site at the start of nuclear diplomacy with the U.S. In 2008, North Korea blew up a cooling tower at its main nuclear complex when earlier disarmament-for-aid negotiations with the U.S. and others were alive.
Destroying the roads would be in line with leader Kim Jong Un’s order in January to eliminate the goal of a peaceful Korean unification, formally designate South Korea as the country’s “invariable principal enemy” and define the North’s sovereign, territorial sphere. Kim’s order stunned many outside North Korea watchers because it seemed to break from his predecessors’ long-cherished dreams of unifying the Korean Peninsula on the North’s terms.
Experts say Kim likely aims to diminish South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear standoff and seek direct dealings with the U.S. They say Kim also likely hopes to diminish South Korean cultural influence and bolster his rule at home.
North Korea has accused South Korea of infiltrating drones to drop propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang three times this month and threatened to respond with force if it happened again. South Korea has refused to confirm whether it sent drones but warned North Korea would face the end of its regime if the safety of South Korean citizens is threatened.
North Korea put frontline artillery and other army units on standby to launch strikes on South Korea, if drones from South Korea are found over North Korea again. The North Korean Defense Ministry said that the entire South Korean territory “might turn into piles of ashes” following the North’s powerful attack.
North Korea's state media reported earlier Tuesday that Kim Jong Un called a meeting with his top military and security officials the previous day. During the meeting, Kim described the alleged South Korean drone flights as the “enemy’s serious provocation” and laid out unspecified tasks related to “immediate military action” and the operation of his “war deterrent” for defending the country’s sovereignty, the North's Korean Central News Agency said.
During the previous era of inter-Korean detente in the 2000s, the two Koreas reconnected two road routes and two rail tracks across their heavily fortified border. But their operations later were suspended one by one as the Koreas wrangled over North Korea’s nuclear program and other issues.
Last week, North Korea said it would permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defense structures to cope with “confrontational hysteria” by South Korean and U.S. forces. South Korean officials said North Korea had already been adding anti-tank barriers and laying mines along the border since earlier this year. They said North Korea has also planted mines and removed lamps along its sections of the inter-Korean roads and taken out ties on the northern side of the railways.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have sharply increased in recent years, with North Korea performing a run of provocative missile tests and South Korea and the U.S. expanding their military drills
Follow AP's Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
A visitor walks near a wire fence decorated with ribbons written with messages wishing for the reunification of the two Koreas at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A visitor walks near a wire fence decorated with ribbons written with messages wishing for the reunification of the two Koreas at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A visitor walks by a map of railroad and road between two Koreas cities, South's Munsan and North's Kaesong, at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Barricades are placed near the Unification Bridge, which leads to the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Barricades are placed near the Unification Bridge, which leads to the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. The sign on the screen reads, "North-South Gyeongui and Donghae roads line connection section." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. The sign on the screen reads, "North-South Gyeongui and Donghae roads line connection section." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. The sign on the screen reads, "North-South Gyeongui and Donghae roads line connection section." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A TV screen reports North Korea has blown up parts of northern side of inter-Korean roads during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
South Korean visitors look at a map which shows a border area of two Koreas with a railroad line between Munsan city in south and Kaesong in north, at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Barricades are placed near the Unification Bridge, which leads to the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A North Korean soldier stands guard at the North's military guard post as a North Korean flag flutters in the wind, as seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
