Dubs’ new home coming right along.
Promising rookie becomes first on team to tour Chase Center’s construction site
“It’s pretty cool. I’m intrigued in seeing how it’s coming together right now. Every angle I get, I see the arena differently. I think it’s going to come out really well.” – Warriors rookie Jordan Bell on the construction of the new Chase Center in San Francisco
As he stood on a platform overseeing the city beneath him, Warriors rookie forward Jordan Bell saw numerous sites that made him smile.
Bell observed a handful of cranes moving heavy materials. He admired the various construction workers on the ground moving from one place to another. Then he saw a sign that read, “Future Home of Champions,” a fitting message that defines the Warriors’ mission statement and explains the purpose for all the activity.
This week, Bell became the first Warriors player to tour the construction site of the team’s new home at Chase Center, beginning in the 2019-20 season. After taking a nearly hour-long hard-hat tour to soak in the views and gain a better understanding of the arena’s progress, Bell playfully raised
his hands to the sky.
“It’s pretty cool,” Bell said as he eyed the architecture. “I’m intrigued in seeing how it’s coming together right now. Every angle I get, I see the arena differently. I think it’s going to come out really well.”
Warriors president Rick Welts reported that Chase Center remains on pace to open in the fall of 2019, as announced when breaking ground on Jan. 17, 2017. Peter Bryan, the Warriors’ vice president of construction and development, added, “We have hit all of our scheduled milestones.”
In late November, steel erection work started on the site. In November 2018, Chase Center and its adjacent facilities will have a roof as well as glass and metal panels that will protect the structures from rain, Bryan and Welts said,.
Lastly, Warriors senior vice president of business development Brandon Schneider offered a prediction that could upset those in the Big Apple.
“Some people say that Chase Center will be the Madison Square Garden of the West Coast,” Schneider said, before delivering his punch line. “We like to think that Madison Square Garden will become the Chase Center of the East Coast.”
Should sports fans eventually view Chase Center as the World’s Most Famous Arena?
“It’s halfway in jest,” Schneider said, chuckling. “But we think Madison Square Garden is a worldclass venue, and Chase Center will be as well. We think every tour is going to come here. This will be something to come to nationwide as how they want it built.”
The Oakland factor
Even with the move to San Francisco, the Warriors are still keeping their fans in Oakland in mind.
They have calculated how long it will take for fans to arrive at Chase Center from each BART station. Using Google maps that accounted for typical traffic on Wednesday at 6 p.m., the Warriors have found that a ride from an East Bay BART station will take an average of 15 minutes longer than it would to arrive at Oracle Arena. Interestingly, the Warriors calculated it would take fans 25 minutes to get to Chase Center from the West Oakland BART station, as opposed to 23 minutes to Oracle Arena.
The Warriors argued the estimated times might decrease when accounting for fans leaving much earlier before the game and later after the game because of the arena’s onsite retail stores and restaurants.
“It’s much more manageable in terms of the number of people that we’re talking about accommodating,” Welts said. “It’s on us, in partnership with the city, to make sure that whatever the circumstances are when the building opens, even if it’s just a temporary situation, that we may make it as good as we can make it.
“It makes things a lot easier.”
It appears the Warriors have the same mindset about what this will mean for their players.
Currently, the Warriors practice in downtown Oakland, about 15 minutes from Oracle Arena. When the Warriors begin playing at Chase Center, they will practice at a facility adjacent to the arena. The Warriors’ staff will work nearby, too.
“That’s a big change,” Welts said. “The lockerroom facilities, the training facilities, all of the amenities will be part of the player campus that will be something they’re experiencing every day. It’s not just on game days and not just on practice days.”
Bell understands the implications, even if his view of the new practice facility amounted to seeing steel structures surrounded by dirt.
“If you want to live close to the practice facility, now you don’t have to choose” between the arena and practice facility, Bell said.
“That’s great. You get a better feel for how our sweet spots are on the floor. I know for me personally, I have different spots on the floor at the practice facility than the actual facility. I think it’s good to have it here. You just go in and go to the regular arena and shoot whenever you want.”
After enjoying a “totally different” fan atmosphere than what he encountered at Oregon, Bell wondered how the atmosphere at Chase Center will compare to Oracle Arena and its capacity of 19,596 fans.
“I want to see if it can get as loud as Oracle again,” Bell said. “When we get things going at Oracle, it gets really loud. It definitely affects the way we play and definitely affects the opponent the way they play. When Oracle gets super loud, it’s kind of hard to play in there.”
The next step
While the Warriors maintain they will still keep some of their roots in Oakland, a virtual tour of Chase Center suggests a new atmosphere than what Oracle offers.
Chase Center will offer more suites then Oracle Arena (136 compared to 84), broader width on the main concourse (30 feet vs. 20 feet) and upper concourse (20 feet vs. 12 feet) as well as the number of retail stores and restaurants (up to 29 vs. 0).
Inside, the Warriors will have concessions that mirror local favorites, including Hot Dog Bills, Bakesale Betty, Sam’s Chowder House, Tacolicious and Big Nate’s Barbecue.
The virtual tour showed that the club suites and theater boxes offer full kitchens, bars and living room areas with multiple big-screen TVs. While the courtside lounges offer only a big-screen view to the live TV feed instead of a view of the court, it takes an average of 15 seconds to walk to the designated courtside lounge seat. Thus far, Schneider said, the Warriors have sold 42 of 44 club suites, 25 of 32 court-side lounges and 30 of 60 theater boxes.
While the Warriors are expected to benefit from such added revenue streams, they also plan to host 200 events per year, possibly including future NCAA Tournaments and NBA All-Star Games.
Much work awaits before then, though. But as Bell surveyed the landscape, he saw a sign that basically summed up what the construction site suggested:
“The future is here.”