Obviously the new Chase Center won’t be as loud as the roar at Oracle Arena last time the Golden State Warriors featured in the NBA Finals. Now that all the NBA media has noticed that fact after two games there, let’s try to move on to that point. The old arena was always noisier, more fun, and it only made people feel good to think about it because the beauty of nostalgia was all the feeling that wasn’t there in reality.
The home field advantage at Chicago Stadium, “the noisiest arena in the NBA,” according to PA broadcaster Ray Clay and possibly anyone who had his ears peeled during the starting lineup introduction, is very real. . From 1990-94, they won 37-7 at home during season after season on their way to three NBA championships. However, the building opened in 1929 and the Bulls will move into a new arena, across the street, starting 1994-95. People have given so much love to that dilapidated building, but United Center is a much better stadium with a great atmosphere to have a watch-worthy team inside. However, the words on the large, unlimited lines below the basket at least say the same thing at UC as they did at Chicago Stadium: the Chicago Bulls.
The Warriors made a difference at Chase Center. At Oracle, the area colored in and out of bounds used to always read Golden State Warriors, even during the 2007 “We Believe” knockout, it still reads “Golden State Warriors” along the way. one baseline, but engraved on the other as “San Francisco”.
This new arena wasn’t built across the street, it was built across the bridge. When the San Francisco Warriors settled into the Oracle – then the Oakland Arena – in 1971, they were renamed the Golden State Warriors. The team represents an area instead of just a city. It makes sense, especially in the Bay Area. The MLB has the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s, and the NFL has the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, but everyone in the Bay can take out the Warriors. They serve the same purpose as the Baltimore Orioles did for DC and Baltimore, just with a more encompassing name.
Now the Warriors return to the other side of the Gulf, a move that the owner Joe Lacob want to do for many years. It might not be a big deal when suddenly the name of the city the Warriors play in is printed in large print on the playing surface, but it was a conscious decision. The new arena is supposed to resemble Oracle as much as possible, just with some silicon valley conveniences for more luxurious features and boxes.
The white jersey the Warriors wore in Sunday’s 107-88 win over the Boston Celtics looks exactly like when they lost the NBA Finals to the Toronto Raptors in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals, the last NBA game. Ever played at Oracle. The courthouse looks pretty much the same too – without the Warriors’ 75th anniversary NBA logo midway through and some YouTube TV ads from the league. But the San Francisco words stand out on that one baseline.
It was there when the Warriors first started playing at Chase Center in the Fall of 2019, when they went all out to try to get themselves to San Francisco – even though they were actually the local basketball team for 60 years. five. They wear San Francisco jerseys, and are sometimes accompanied by the San Francisco Warriors logo. These are efforts I never remember being made against Oakland until they said goodbye.
Then, in 2020-2021, there are no fans at Chase Center due to the pandemic, and guess what, the baseline is no more San Francisco. Both read Golden State Warriors along with some side ads. But when the fans returned this season, San Francisco was right back at the starting line.
The Warriors still host events in Oakland. They do charity all over the Bay Area, and last season they had citywide version Oakland uniforms and court designs from the Warriors “We Believe/We’re Most Suck” era. The Bay Area television market is the sixth largest in the United States. Most certainly, the Warriors want every TV in that market to air on NBC Sports Bay Area from October through April, but what they’ve deliberately done with that baseline shows the Warriors organization its heart in San Francisco when Lacob had the idea to buy the team. So if you’re feeling low on energy at Chase Center at times, it probably has something to do with the vast “San Francisco” gazing at you from underneath one of the baskets.
