Kurtenbach: Chase Center first impressions — tremendous amenities, no soul

SAN FRANCISCO — I won’t lie, it was strange typing that dateline as I looked out on Stephen Curry and Draymond Green playing on a yellow-and-blue Warriors court.

But a new era is upon us — officially — and there’s no going back.

Saturday night was the debut for the Warriors at Chase Center — the first opportunity to experience the new building in Mission Bay in the manner it was intended to be experienced.

First, the positives from my first impressions: Chase Center is an impressive building and a testament to what next-level perseverance, strong vision, and a ton of cold, hard cash can build.

There’s not a thing functionally wrong with the place. The video screens are informative, plentiful, and downright incredible. The seats are smartly arranged and comfortable. The game-ops were on point, as they were in the Warriors’ prior home. And boy does the place have a ton of bathrooms.

It’s almost comical how much nicer Chase Center is compared to the decrepit, sticky, and altogether dumpy Oakland — né Oracle — Arena.

And now, the negatives:

We’ll start with the thing that really matters to me: A can of Modelo — a tall can, to be fair — costs $15.

Cheap concessions might be a fan-friendly trend around professional sports these days, but Chase Center is not part of that trend. The Warriors are wasting no time trying to get back the $1.4 billion they spent on the place. Can’t blame them.

But the Chase Center also has all the character of a new international airport terminal. There’s a coldness to it, and the built-in stratification of the seating (“are you a Super Diamond Elite-level cardholder, sir?”) only exacerbates that.

There are some nice lines and accents, but they feel forced, and so much of this stadium is windowless corridors with plain white walls leading to sterilized atriums, typically with large windows to look out onto some incredible views of the Bay or the well-designed public courtyard. I almost expect there to be an arrivals and departures board and a few boarding announcements over the PA.

And inside the bowl, there’s nothing distinctive about Chase Center. If the baseline (or beer prices) didn’t tell you, you’d never know you were in San Francisco or the Bay Area.

Despite the elite real estate, it feels like Chase Center could be in Chicago, Charlotte, or (god forbid) Houston.

For instance, when the in-house DJ played Too $Short’s “Blow the Whistle” in the first half, absolutely no one got hyphy Saturday.

In fact, the arena is deeply reminiscent of Los Angeles’ Staples Center, which itself is an unremarkable place to take in a game. Maybe that’s why the Lakers played so well Saturday.

And while Chase Center can get loud — louder than most arenas, a statement to the Warriors’ attention to detail when it came to acoustics — but it was also evident during Saturday’s game that it’ll never reach that ear-drum-damaging-levels of noise that the concrete, convex roof in Oakland created.

I hope I’m wrong about that, but I don’t think I am.

Simply put, the Chase Center doesn’t feel like the Warriors home.

Not yet, at least.

And while that’s not surprising, it’s still disappointing.

Yes, the Oakland Arena was a dump, but there was some incredible history — especially recently — in that old barn, making it easy to repackage its lack of modern amenities (or old-school charm) as “character”. It wasn’t a basketball cathedral, but when the Warriors were at their best, there were few places in the world where it was more fun to experience a game.

And when family members or friends came through the Bay Area in recent years, I would make sure to get them tickets to Warriors games — even as prices went through the roof (though sometimes I asked for a bit of help). I wanted them to take in the full Oakland Arena experience. There was simply something different about playing games in that place — something you had to be there to experience first-hand. And despite the arena’s dumpiness, those tickets always seemed like money well spent.

Clearly, I won’t be so aggressive when it comes to showing out-of-towners the Chase Center.

The Warriors tried to re-create that atmosphere in San Francisco — but only to a point. It should be noted that the features that made the Oakland Arena a cauldron of noise for basketball games also made it a terrible place for concerts; Chase Center won’t have those issues — nor will the Warriors lack the ability to book the place to top touring acts.

But when it comes to basketball and the arena’s anchor tenant, there’s simply no soul and little energy in the new place yet.

It might not be fair to expect that, but context is everything and juxtaposed to the old digs, Chase Center doesn’t stack up in the things that truly make people want to get off their couch and go to an arena. That place on the other side of the bay re-defined loud and provided the Warriors a real home-court advantage.

Perhaps that distinctiveness — that flavor — will develop over the weeks, months, and years to come.

I sure hope it does, because if Saturday’s game was any indication, the Warriors need the help.