The Golden State Warriors NBA basketball franchise played its first game at Chase Center at the weekend as the arena marked the occasion with the installation of the league’s largest centre-hung scoreboard.
The arena hosted its first event last month as Metallica performed to a crowd of around 16,000 but Saturday marked its first basketball game. Warriors fans were left disappointed as the home team fell to a 123-101 defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers in the first game of pre-season.
The Warriors have teamed up with Samsung Electronics America to fit Chase Center with the new centre-hung display, which will form part of more than 64 LED video displays fitted at the venue.
The main scoreboard will total 9,699 square feet of video display, which Chase Center said marks the largest centre-hung LED video display in a sports arena. The board integrates 15 displays varying from 6.7mm pixel pitch on the main displays and upper halo ring to 4mm pixel pitch on the underbelly displays, totalling more than 26.3 million individual LEDs.
“Samsung is committed to changing the way fans experience live events through technology,” Harry Patz, senior vice-president and general manager of Samsung Electronics America’s B2B Enterprise Display Division, said.
“Our product portfolio lends itself to seamless integration in a variety of industries, including sports applications, and in this case outfitting Chase Center with our displays. We are proud to partner with the Golden State Warriors, an organisation that shares the same passion and commitment to delivering unforgettable experiences to their customers.”
Rick Welts, president and chief operating officer of the Warriors, added: “Our fans are some of the most knowledgeable fans in sports and as we had the opportunity to build a new arena we knew our scoreboard would be key in the overall fan experience at Chase Center.
“In addition to having the most square footage of surface LED space in the NBA, the capabilities are endless – providing fans everything they need to follow the game including rich content, expanded stat categories, the ability to show stats for every player on the team at the same time, a real-time shot chart and much more.”
Samsung and the Warriors have also fitted what is claimed to be the first-ever full outdoor LED display in San Francisco. The display has been fastened to the outer wall of Chase Center’s west entrance and has been built to withstand adverse weather conditions.
Star man Steph Curry sank the first bucket at the arena and went on to score 18 points during Saturday’s game but a youthful Warriors team could not deliver a victory for the home fans. The Warriors welcome the Minnesota Timberwolves to Chase Center on Thursday.
Check out our recent article for an in-depth look into the design of Chase Center.
Image: Chase Center
