Abcity with the National change all that in 2019, all while allowing an Complex, moving the team out of the 1988¬Basketball Association’s NBA team to move from the league’s oldest opened BMO Harris Bradley Center, and the (NBA) third¬oldest arena gets arena into its newest. Golden State Warriors plan to vacate the 1966¬a fresh start in 2018. And the As the Milwaukee Bucks look to a opened Oracle Arena in Oakland to cross the largest U.S. city without an September 2018 opening of the yet¬unnamed Bay Bridge and return to San Francisco in the arena over 12,000 capacity will Milwaukee Sports and Entertainment brand¬new Chase Center for late summer 2019, the two arenas do more than house bas¬ketball. They also propel forward arena design, and thus operations, across the country.
MILWAUKEE
Raj Saha, general manager of the Bucks’ arena and head of programming, says working with Icon Venue Group has kept the downtown project on path for an opening within a greater district that includes a new team training facil¬ity and mixed use. With construction on sched¬ule in Milwaukee on the 17,500¬capacity, $524¬million project owned by the Wisconsin Center District—the Bucks serve as the master lease holders—arena designer Brad Clark of Kansas City¬based Populous says the design builds unique arena experiences on the east end of the venue.
By aggregating the bulk of premium spaces on multiple levels from the event floor to the upper¬most level, Clark opens viewer experiences toward the stage on the opposite side when concerts roll into town. The design also connects each level to the seven¬story atri¬um that includes views back toward down¬town.
“You are going to have a good view of the playing floor for Bucks games, but also for end¬stage concerts,” he says. “It makes those spaces powerful and gives them an opportunity to look to the city beyond. It makes this build¬ing about transparency and community.”
The premium—excluding a few suites on the sidelines—includes stacking event-level club, which includes access to players as they come on and off the floor, a mezzanine club above that, a suite level (the building contains 34 suites), a loge club with space for 144 loge seats and a Panorama Club above the upper concourse that includes an exterior balcony perched above the entry looking toward the city and Lake Michigan. “There is a lot of energy on that end of the building,” Clark says. With the clubs located on the east end, visitors will still travel through vomitory entrances to reach sideline seats.
The loge seats mimic theater box¬style seating with immediate access to dining tables and a larger club space behind that opens to the atrium. The Panorama Club isn’t a premium amenity, opening to hold up to 900¬ticketed fans with rail seats and casual seating through¬out, a “really cool space at the top of the build¬ing,” Saha says. Clark says Panorama will serve as a key space to perform double¬duty as rental space during non¬event days.
“Every one of these venues is looking to fill as many event days as they can,” he says. “The Bucks and Marquette University can only play so many games and you can only get so many concerts. We are always looking for ways to get double use or triple use out of clubs or congregational spaces within the building.” Located directly off the lobby on the east end, Panorama and clubs have easy vertical circula¬tion for daily use.
Moving premium spaces to the east also opened up the bowl, allowing for about 10,000 seats in the lower bowl and creating in-demand seating options and healthier price point options for the team. Bradley Center has just north of 5,000 lower bowl tickets.
The concourse creates a mostly open view to the bowl to not separate fans from the action. The north side remains completely open with concessions pushed toward the perimeter and drink rails spanning the entire sideline. The lower concourse features a spon¬sored bar at each of the corners. Still, though, portions of the concourse close off to the bowl. “The building has two different personalities depending on how you want to interact with it,” Clark says. “To the extent we could, we wanted to open up the bowl.” The south side of the upper concourse will offer a Milwaukee Public Market¬style food kiosk row featuring local shops.
Designed with basketball sightlines, instead of hockey, as in Bradley Center, Saha says fans pull closer to the court in their wider, more comfortable seats.
For the back of house, Saha says they not only wanted to create more space in the 730,000¬sq.¬ft. venue for locker rooms and operations, but also to entice concerts into the venue with six fully¬enclosed loading docks and artist rooms with singular temperature and lighting controls. “We went to everyone on the music side and asked what they wanted to see,” Saha says.
Saha has spent years traveling to North America to experience what arenas have to offer, finding everything from the need to include ample wall protection in the backstage area to ensure the building remains fresh for years and opening up the box office into a hotel concierge style for a fan-friendly and modern design.
By operating the building, the Bucks will also have the opportunity to increase sponsor¬ship revenue by merging together both build¬ing and team sponsorships into one bundle, increasing valuation, Saha says.
SAN FRANCISCO
While discussions continue in Seattle about what a renovated KeyArena could potentially do for the city’s NBA future and the Los Angeles Clippers have announced intentions to build a new arena in Inglewood and vacate Staples Center, the only other concrete NBA arena coming on line is Chase Center on the bay in San Francisco.
The only privately financed arena or sta¬dium built on private property, the $1 billion project includes the arena, training center, two office towers, 100,000 square feet of leasable restaurant and retail space and a 3.5¬acre pub¬lic plaza on the 11¬acre waterfront site.
Designer David Manica, Manica Architecture, says the level of finishes will be unlike other arenas, making the venue feel like a “five¬star hospitality” destination, from clubs, lounges and suites to the concourse area. “The building is going to be really beautiful inside and out,” he told Venues Today.
Optimized for basketball sightlines with a compact, intimate design, Manica incorporates a variety of spectator experiences. The first seats on the floor put spectator feet directly on the maple hardwood and give that first row its own club. The next five rows, still courtside, have another club, giving the Warriors two types of seating with two clubs before even leaving the floor.
Add in 32 courtside lounges tucked behind the seating that don’t offer a view of the court but feature a double¬height space with LED wall screen and shared wine cellar and the courtside amenities offer variety.
The sidelines include typical club seats amid the 18,000¬seat venue. The horseshoe of 44 suites was designed for optimized sightlines for the court and end-stage concerts. Just above the suites, 60 theater boxes look just like tradi¬tional theater boxes with actual furniture seat-ing, a dedicated dining table and a large lounge.
The viewing options don’t stop with the upper deck, as bridge viewing and standing room areas hover above the floor and a skybar lounge includes views to the court. At the very top of the building, without views to the court, but with views over the bay, onto the Bay Bridge and of the city skyline, is a restau¬rant, accessed from outside the venue and secure from the ticketed areas for use on any day.
The variety in seating options was driven by, Manica says, ownership wanting to provide a variety of viewing options. “Of course, San Francisco is an amazing market and we had the support (to offer) a variety of seating types,” he says.
Manica also brings together a unique way for Chase Center to treat house reduction. He designed the arena to scale into a 5,000¬seat performance hall. By turning a secondary arena entrance into the main theater entrance, visitors come into a half-house situation, but not split horizontally, rather split vertically. Using drop¬down panels complete with light¬ing, one side of the building turns into a the¬ater with viewing angles that work for theater and additional lighting grids and rigging for spotlights. “We worked with a theater expert to understand how the sidewalls can drop down and create a sense of theater,” Manica says. The built¬in¬place stage creates a com¬pletely different experience within Chase Center.
Outside, as the Chase Center connects to the training facility, mixed¬use and public areas, the main entrance also serves as a com¬munity plaza, designed as a front porch for the city to stage events reminiscent of Rockefeller Square in New York City.
From the front porch at San Francisco’s Chase Center to the seven¬story atrium that opens up a fresh arena perspective in Milwaukee, the next two years will feature the opening of two new NBA arenas, offering new benchmarks in their respective communities and also the arena world.