Los Angeles Clippers strike a $500 million-plus naming rights deal with financial software company Intuit

September 20, 2021: On Friday, the Los Angeles Clippers announced a sponsorship deal with financial software company Intuit, which holds title rights to the team’s new $1.2 billion arenas, scheduled to open in Inglewood in 2024.

The Clippers will call their new complex the Intuit Dome, which provides the company with increased brand awareness with signage on and almost the 18,000-seat, all-electric arena.

Intuit is a financial management tech company that trades on the Nasdaq and has a $156.4 billion market cap. The products of the company include TurboTax, Credit Karma, and QuickBooks.

Terms of the agreement with the Clippers were made public, but National Basketball Association sources told CNBC the deal is a 23-year agreement that eclipses $500 million.

By comparison, Chase Bank struck a 20-year, almost $300 million naming-rights deal with the Golden State Warriors. And Staples paid entertainment firm AEG more than $100 million when it hit its naming-rights agreement for the downtown Los Angeles building in 1999. The company renewed the pact in 2009 and now has lifetime rights to the Staples Center, home to the Lakers and Clippers.

On Thursday, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and team president Gillian Zucker gave CNBC and other media a preview of the Intuit Dome. The arena will feature a double-sided Halo video board with 44,000-square feet of LED lights, plus technology that permits the fans to purchase concessions and automatically be charged without using cash or cards.

Clippers estimate the Intuit Dome will generate $260 million in annual economic activity for Inglewood, including more than 7,000 full-time and part-time jobs. The Clippers committed to a $100 million community benefits package that includes investments in after-school programs, services for seniors, libraries, and housing. The official groundbreaking of the Intuit Dome will be conducted Friday afternoon.

“We’ve designed a product that I’m very proud of,” Ballmer told CNBC. “But we’re sitting here celebrating, and we have got three years before this thing is done,” he added. “We’re just at a milestone with the way.”

Ballmer said the exterior design of the arena is symbolic of a basketball splashing through a net. He expressed enthusiasm about using the National Football League concept through “pioneering the feel of end-zone suites.” The Intuit Dome will leverage four courtside cabanas directly beside the courtside baseline where Ballmer is seated. It will also include ten backstage bungalows private suites on the floor level.

“This stadium is about being optimistic about our team,” Ballmer said.