Chase Center, the future home of NBA basketball franchise the Golden State Warriors, has already generated $2bn (£1.5bn/€1.8bn) in revenue for the team – five months before it is due to open.
The state-of-the-art arena, which will have a capacity of just over 18,000, is due to open with a Metallica concert on September 6 before the Warriors play their first pre-season game at the venue against the Los Angeles Lakers on October 5. The arena will be located in the Mission Bay neighbourhood of San Francisco.
The Warriors have already secured a number of high-profile partners for the arena, including title sponsor JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as the likes of Accenture, Pepsi, HPE, United Airlines and Google Cloud.
The Warriors became the first team in professional sports to partner with Google Cloud in February, with the deal intended to create seamless technology integration at Chase Center.
These sponsorship deals, along with ticket sales and suite packages, have proved lucrative for the Warriors, with president Rick Welts stating that the $2bn revenue figure is more than double what the team had estimated.
Speaking on the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast, Welts said: “The perfect market, perfect time – the Bay Area is on fire. Couldn’t be a better economic time. Couldn’t be a better basketball team.”
The cost of the new arena for the Warriors, which have won three of the last four NBA championships, has proved more expensive than anticipated, with the price of construction rising 30 per cent over budget to around $1.3bn.
This has been offset by the impressive revenue figures and Welts said this can largely be attributed to sponsorship deals. “The corporate sponsorship side has found a real sweet spot with what’s going on in our industry right now, and the companies are looking to invest in sports,” he said.
Chase Center, which will replace Oakland’s Oracle Arena as the Warriors’ home facility, will anchor an 11-acre mixed-use complex in Mission Bay.
Image: Chase Center
