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Opening night of the Clippers’ new Intuit Dome didn’t go quite as team owner Steve Ballmer had hoped, as Bruno Mars fans waited hours outside in security lines that delayed the concert by more than an hour and a half.
The cause of the delays was the arena’s facial recognition technology, according to local ABC affiliate KABC.
Earlier in the day, Ballmer used a pair of gigantic scissors to cut a red ribbon marking the opening of his new arena. “I have to say, I’m a little anxious tonight. I love what we built, but I want all of you to love what we built. … Tech means software, and I’m really hoping it all works tonight,” Ballmer joked in his speech to the crowd. “I’ve done version one of many software products, so bear with us, just bear with us if you need to. We’re all over to help tonight.”
One concertgoer posted on social media that they waited in line for more than 40 minutes, and some of the arena’s escalators had stopped working.
As fans trickled in, KABC-TV spoke to Ballmer about the technical difficulties. “Yeah, I’m worried about that. That’s one of the things I was a little nervous about. We’re working it. We’ll get ’em all in.” Mars is set to play another show at the venue Friday night.
Representatives for the Clippers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Perhaps most unfortunate about the tech mishap for Ballmer was that his $2 billion brainchild in Inglewood, Calif., prides itself on the details and fan experience. All seats have electrical outlets and are within distance of a T-shirt cannon. Most prominently, the dome has 1,160 toilets and urinals, according to Ballmer, which is twice as many as most arenas.
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