Chase Center, under construction in the Mission Bay area of San Francisco, will feature the Warriors’ flagship store near the front entrance.golden state warriors
The Golden State Warriors are nearing completion of costly and highly anticipated arena projects as construction of the glitzy $1 billion Chase Center in San Francisco shifts toward finishing work.
Nearly nine months ahead of a September opening date, the arena’s 18,000 seats are being installed, which is about 1,000 fewer seats compared with the team’s current Oracle Arena home located across the Bay in Oakland.
Chase Center
Location: Mission Bay neighborhood, San Francisco
Tenant and owner: Golden State Warriors
Cost: $1 billion
Architects: Manica; Kendall Heaton; and Gensler (interior)
Construction: Mortenson-Clark Construction joint venture
Concessionaires: Bon Appétit Management Co. and Levy Restaurants
“We are in the homestretch,” said Rick Welts, president and COO of the Warriors who has spearheaded the arena’s development in San Francisco. “We are starting to do millwork and finishing suites.”
When Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber open the first new arena built in San Francisco in decades, Chase Center will be a high-tech, revenue-producing powerhouse with more than $2 billion in contractually obligated revenue already on the books. It’s a record amount across sports that will hold at least until next year when the new Los Angeles NFL football stadium opens.
“When [Chase Center] opens it will be the prize winner for most contractually obligated income, but I’m not sure how long that will stand,” Welts said. “It is a combination of suite revenue, sponsorship contracts and our membership program with each season ticket associated with a membership.”
The unique season-ticket membership program is a key financing mechanism for the facility. Buyers pay a one-time membership fee with the team to fully refund the memberships after a 30-year term. More than half of the memberships will cost $15,000 or less, excluding the price of the season tickets.
“It hasn’t been done before and it is going really well,” Welts said.
The Warriors are about halfway through their sales migration offered to current season-ticket holders at Oracle Arena with about 70 percent of current season-ticket holders buying memberships into the new facility.
The 18,000-seat arena will have 32 courtside lounges and 44 midlevel suites located between the upper and lower seating bowls.golden state warriors
What has not yet been decided is how much the team will limit the season-ticket sales that at Oracle today stands at 14,000, with a waiting list of more than 43,000. The team has not finalized the limit on season tickets sold at the Chase Center, but it will be less than 14,000.
The new arena will have 32 courtside lounges and 44 midlevel suites located between the upper and lower bowl. In addition, there will be 60 theater boxes and 4,991 club seats.
The suite amenities include high-end furnishings with full dining tables, personal attendants and access to personal wine vaults.
“They will be more finely appointed than anything I have ever seen,” Welts said. “People will be blown away by them.”
The arena’s builder is a Mortenson-Clark joint venture and the lead architect is Manica, with Kendall Heaton as architect of record and Gensler as the interior architect.
In addition to the luxurious premium-seating options, a signature design of the new facility will be an extension of the lower bowl that reaches to the top of the north end of the arena. Located behind the extended seating is a Sky Bar. Other branded clubs within the arena are courtside lounges east, Accenture; a sideline club, United Airlines; a courtside club, Chase; and an end zone bar, Pepsi. To date, none of the arena’s gates have been branded.
The new arena has five founding partners in Accenture, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Pepsi, RingCentral and United Airlines. More founding deals are likely to be added as the arena nears its opening.
Another major shift from the team’s current facility is that the Chase Center project will have 29 retail locations, most that will feature restaurants, located outside the arena but within the arena district.
The Warriors hope to have another NBA championship banner to hang outside the arena when it opens in September.Golden state warriors
“That is a big game changer for us,” Welts said noting the impact of those locations on fans looking to shop and spend.
Another “game changer” of the project is the construction of two commercial office buildings as part of the arena development project for a total of 580,000 square feet of commercial space under team control.
The mixed-use arena project will cover about 11 acres, which will include a public plaza fronting Chase Center.
The plaza will be the site of the team’s flagship store located near the arena’s main entrance, unique among NBA facilities that typically have their team stores connected to their arenas.
“The store will be located outside the building and we are excited about that,” Welts said.
The store will be 10,000 square feet and its location will allow customers 365-day access to shopping even without a ticket to the arena.
In addition to two other smaller team stores that will be on the main concourse, the arena will have eight smaller merchandise stands to be located throughout its upper bowl.
Chase Center’s food provider is a partnership between Levy Restaurants and Bon Appétit Management.
When the arena opens in September, it will mark two years of construction for the team, but the building amenities won’t be fully completed.
Plans in 2020 call for a 3,000- to 5,000-seat theater to host entertainment acts to be built within the arena with a separate entrance that will give theater-goers the sense of being in an entirely separate facility.
When fully completed, the Chase Center will host at least 200 events annually.
“It hasn’t been done before to this degree,” Welts said of the theater within the arena feature. “From day one, this has been all about basketball and concerts.”
