In the weeks since the Los Angeles Clippers moved into their new $2 billion home, the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, much of the attention has focused on the arena’s enormous Halo Board, with its embedded T-shirt cannons, and on the steep seating section called the Wall, reserved for chanting superfans. Also being touted are the four-button gaming pads built into the armrests and the 1,400 toilets spread around the arena—three times the NBA average.

But the vast majority of fans at the 18,000-capacity building won’t ever see what may be its crowning achievement: the premium seats.

There are the standard luxury boxes on the upper level, of course, but fans in prime spots along the sidelines can also book “backstage bungalows,” posh private rooms that come with high-end food and drinks, a concierge and parking passes in the players’ garage. Those sitting along one of the baselines can take just a couple of steps down from their seats into private “courtside cabanas,” built underneath the stands. Then there are the luxurious communal club spaces, such as the Red Lounge for courtside fans, who reportedly have to pay between $25,000 and $35,000 per season ticket. Most impressive is the Lexus Courtside Lounge, where the players walk past a private bar and through a rope line on their way from the locker room to the court.

For decades, arenas have reserved upgraded spaces for VIPs and corporate sponsors, but the Clippers’ new offerings are just as cutting edge as the facial recognition technology at the Intuit Dome’s grab-and-go concession stands, reflecting an industrywide rethinking of the approach to premium seating. And that new philosophy is already translating to many more millions in revenue for teams.

The luxury seating evolution boils down to providing a much wider range of premium options. “Ten, really 15, 20 years ago, there would be one suite type, and that was it,” says Tracy Payne, a senior interior designer at Populous, the Kansas City, Missouri-based architecture firm that has designed modern sports and entertainment venues including the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park, the New York Islanders’ UBS Arena and the Sphere in Las Vegas. “Now, we create an incredible breadth of premium inventory for each client, at different price points and different demographics.” Wesley Crosby, Populous’ interior design director, notes that one client now offers 13 different premium experiences.

For starters, the shift means fewer traditional luxury suites. When the Clippers’ old home, Crypto.com Arena in Downtown Los Angeles, opened in 1999, the trend was to cram as many as possible into a sports venue, and the arena was stuffed with an astonishing 170. Now, the Intuit Dome has 46 on its main suite level.

Similarly, the NHL’s Calgary Flames, who started construction on Scotia Place in July and expect the building to be ready for the 2027-28 season, are dropping to 54 suites, from 80 at their current arena, the Scotiabank Saddledome. And the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, who broke ground on a new Nissan Stadium in February for a 2027 grand opening, are going from 177 to 130.

The suites that remain are becoming more customizable and available in more........

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