Like many here, this was our first visit to the Intuit Dome. Here are some of my impressions. What are yours?
As I commented the other day, tickets and parking were expensive. Everyone has to have their own ticket in the Clipper/Intuit app on their phone. You also have to register an account and a lot of personal information is required. It's called an "Identity Pass". Facial recognition is optional, but even as a (usually) law abiding citizen, I still would prefer not to have my image in some data base. It's kind of creepy. On the other hand if they want to pay me for my Name, Likeness and Image, I'll gladly accept the money.
We got there early and waited a while to leave, so in and out of the parking structure, about a block from the Dome, was easy. There was the now standard metal detection at the entrance to the arena grounds, the first of many checkpoints we had to go through. It took several tries to pass through one and several more at another although the first few seemed to register an OK. A nice touch was a basketball court adjacent to the arena but about a hundred people were on it, so practicing some free throws was out of the question. Then two lines to enter, one for facial rec and another for identity pass. Once in the building, it took quite a while to figure out how to get to our seats. Around the perimeter, down an escalator, then through a long maze-like hallway, more check points, through some kind of lounge and then to the seats.
Sight lines were different than Pauley, Although our seats were about the same number of rows up, they were much further from the court. The upper level seemed so high that one might as well have been watching from the moon. Anyone sit there? Also some dude with a fat head was sitting in front of me blocking my view of the cheerleaders.
The video board was huge with lots of individual and team stats. The only negative was that they took off the time and score during timeouts and only one small scoreboard at one end showed it. They had some of the usual nonsense amusements during the timeouts including the easiest trivia contest in UCLA history, but the only one that worked was showing some kid and seeing how long he could go without blinking. Every seat had lights on the armrests that flashed blue or red when they wanted to fire up the crowd. Excessive sensory overload.
I use the wifi and it was fine and strong as it is at Galen, but not at Pauley where it flakes out quite often. Unlike Pauley, the ushers were numerous and helpful. In the ten years since Pauley was renovated, I have never been asked to show my ticket entering a section. That might be because nobody has attended more games in the history of Pauley Pavilion than I have, but not all the ushers know me.
Ballmer is famous for his "1400 toilets" declaration. So it was easy to find a bathroom? Yes and no. What I thought was the entrance to the restroom was just leading to another long winding hallway to a men's room.
As a rule, I don't eat at basketball games. Arena food is always overpriced and unhealthy. I don't see why most people can't go 2-3 hours without eating. Anyway, I didn't see any food stands walking into the arena or anywhere near my seat. Anyone want to review the food options and pricing?
I'm sure we will be playing at Intuit in future seasons, most likely when Arizona comes here in 2027.
I'm a basketball purist. I'm only there for the game. I don't need the amenities and bells and whistles of a new arena. I'm just as happy sitting on uncomfortable bleachers in a hot high school gym. So for me, playing at Intuit was a worthwhile experience . . . but only because we won.