Features

Warriors complete transition with Chase Center opening

The Golden State Warriors have held the official ribbon cutting ceremony for Chase Center, with the franchise stating its new arena will complete its transition from a basketball team to a sports and entertainment company.

The ceremony took place yesterday (Tuesday) as Chase Center prepares to stage its opening event on Friday, a Metallica concert. Chase Center will have a capacity of 18,064 and the Warriors play their first pre-season game at the venue against the Los Angeles Lakers on October 5.

The Warriors are moving from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, their home since 1971, to the new arena which has been privately developed in Mission Bay, San Francisco at a cost of $1.4bn (£1.15bn/€1.27bn).

“Today is the beginning of an exciting new era for the Warriors and our franchise,” said Warriors co-executive chairman and CEO Joe Lacob. “We’ve officially transitioned from a basketball team to a sports and entertainment company with this incredible state-of-the-art arena.

“Chase Center will provide not only our players and coaches with first-rate facilities, but our fans from around the Bay Area – and fans of all forms of entertainment – with unforgettable experiences. It has surpassed my wildest expectations.”

To seek to ensure that Chase Center stands out as a one-of-a-kind sports and entertainment venue, the Warriors worked with architectural firms MANICA, Kendall Heaton and Gensler. In order to boost the fan experience the Warriors and Chase Center have signed founding partners in the shape of Adobe, Accenture, Google Cloud, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Kaiser Permanente, Oracle, PepsiCo, Rakuten, RingCentral, Ticketmaster and United Airlines, along with naming rights partner Chase.

Chase Center will anchor Thrive City, the multipurpose, privately financed complex in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighbourhood consisting of 3.2 acres of publicly accessible plazas and open space that is part of a larger mixed-use development including two office buildings and dozens of unique restaurant and retail locations.

Thrive City has been designed to serve as a community gathering space providing a slate of year-round health and wellness programming, including Get Fit clinics, yoga sessions, farmer’s markets, and ice skating.

“When this process started in 2012, we wanted to build something for everyone, a gathering place to create milestones and memories,” said Warriors co-executive chairman Peter Guber. “Chase Center and Thrive City will accomplish just that, whether it’s via basketball, a concert, a restaurant experience or simply a place to shop and relax. It’s not a stand-alone venue, but rather a venue that, we think, will stand alone.”

For an in-depth look into the design of Chase Center, check out TheStadiumBusiness.com on Friday.