Last week within 24 hours I got to visit two venues in greater Los Angeles decades…actually over a century…apart in construction but with a common storytelling theme; to capture and excite those who entered their walls regardless of the result on the court or the field. That attention to detail now recaptured at The Rose Bowl and re-envisioned at Intuit Dome, showed that when you have leadership that understands the role that sport can play for anyone who enters, and how history and attention to detail can frame a different story for each person, you become more than just a venue.
I have to admit when I made the rainy drive on a Thursday to Pasadena I was not sure what to expect. Here was a venue that some say had outlived its usefulness, but in this podcast we did at Super Bowl with The Rose Bowl Foundation’s Dedan Brozino, it was clear that the Rose Bowl is not just a football and concert venue, it is living history being re-formed every time someone walks in. I found that out within minutes of my visit. The archways named for legends who had appeared there, the California Football Hall of Fame which not only honors the past but inserts itself into young stars now emerging and gives everyone a chance to appreciate the value of the stories of the game well beyond points scored and yards gained, the tributes to music and soccer and architecture. The re-imaging of old locker room and halls and other spaces that were once deemed useless but now scream with usefulness. The thought that goes into designing each statue so that every nuance reflects s apiece of the subjects story.
Its not just jackets and jocks and old helmets. It’s a living archive of culture, people and sport that speaks to everyone differently, and is so well curated that anyone entering the space who chooses to learn something about the past and the present and takes it into the future.
Then on Friday my colleague Chris Wallace gave me the Inuit Dome tour. Anyone who had been in and around Inglewood in years past and comes back now will not recognize the area. The vast expanse of what was Hollywood Park and the Forum (which is still there and a key part of the growth) will easily get lost in the shops, the state of the art theaters like COSM and YouTube, the still new NFL Network headquarters, SOFI Stadium and the new home of the Clippers. It is quite overwhelming to think what as there and what is now continuing to rise.
Back to Inuit Dome. While the tech, the face recognition, the light system, the green initiatives are all special and visionary under the leadership of Steve Ballmer, what struck me even more was again the attention to detail as a fan. Lining the walls were not just high school basketball jerseys of LA county schools but of every school in the state, with a touchscreen to tell you the location of each one and some of the history behind it. There are courts where fans can come and play, The Wall, where fans arrive early and get assigned seats based on various areas of Clippers support, pieces of basketball history which come to life and tell stories of everything from music to sneaker culture and on and on. The building itself is still forming it’s history…it’s only a few years old, but that doesn’t mean that the fan experience isn’t reliving memories from elsewhere now brought to life through the technology of an experiential building.
Having been to so many buildings big and small over the years, it’s amazing to see how sometimes little attention to detail reflective of what the consumer wants is worked into spaces big and small. Some throw up a picture or two or showcase a program and call it a day. There is little of threading of history that fits in. Focus on the today, win some games, bring in corporate dollars and move on. Too busy to tie the strings together.
However with the Rose Bowl and Intuit Dome that’s not the case at all. You feel and see the value of experiential learning, and that is reflective of the caretakers goals. Two venues not that far apart from different eras, with common themes, which capture and excite why we follow and engage. Worthwhile learnings for all of us on how you envision and reinvent and build value for all who enter, regardless of a game result
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