Chase Center: Gentrifying sports

Chronicle sports writer Bruce Jenkins took the recent Chase Center tour:

It’s going to make Oracle Arena a distant memory, probably very soon. There will always be stirrings of regret over the Warriors leaving Oakland, and for fans who have no interest in this San Francisco extravaganza, you’re excused. There are spiritual ways in which this team will never be able to replace what it had in the venerable East Bay facility, so allow acceptance for the heartbroken.

Back in 2015 Jenkins questioned the move from Oakland:

In the process of addressing the media before Game 1, Commissioner Adam Silver proclaimed the Warriors “need a new arena. There is no doubt about that.” You figure he can’t say much else, hanging out with co-owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber as they chart the path to San Francisco, but the Warriors’ East Bay fan base begs to differ. Fenway Park is a structure from some other time, but its treasures are preserved. Wrigley Field didn’t get torn down, just renovated. Oracle doesn’t have that brand of charm or tradition, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, especially now as it thrives in the Finals spotlight...

From Curbed:

Among Chase Center highlights: 44 luxury suites surrounding the arena; 32 courtside lounges; 60 theater boxes; the aforementioned scoreboard, which can hide into the ceiling during concerts and other non-hoop-shooting events; wider and comfier seating; a J.P. Morgan-sponsored club with marble-and-gold accents and chafing dishes galore; and a “player campus,” which is a massive training facility-slash locker room where Warriors team players train, shower, disrobe, and lounge.

More Jenkins:

Just know that the players aren’t waiting around. A team spokesman said “most” of the Warriors already have moved to San Francisco, including Draymond Green and all eight newcomers to the roster. With the offices, training quarters and practice facility all in one place, it makes perfect sense to become a San Francisco person and live nearby.

Yes, NBA players can afford to live in San Francisco, since the average NBA salary is more than $6 million a year.

Jenkins:

Some were offended to see “San Francisco” inscribed along one baseline, when the team is still called Golden State (labeled at the other end), but rumors suggest the team will unveil other court designs, including one denoting “The Town” to honor the Oakland years.

The Warriors should shut the fuck up about "honoring" Oakland. The stupid, insulting "The Town" uniforms appeared on the players long after the Warriors decided to dump Oakland for a tonier address where they could add to the accelerating gentrification of San Francisco. Just what we need: more rich people.

Since there's a major hospital in that neighborhood, Ryan Gorcey in the Examiner wonders about how well medical emergencies will be handled during and after game-day traffic jams:

When I left Chase Center on Monday to head to Lot A at Oracle Park — a two-minute drive — it took 10, because there was construction, and I had to double back and go around. Until the Mission Rock development is completed — and who knows if it truly ever will be — there will be that same traffic trying to navigate a Byzantine maze of single-lane streets wrapped around constant construction, streets that may or may not be open, streets that may or may not be one way in your direction and may run into dead ends.

And of course the project has to have some big, shiny, monumental crap "art":