Chase Field

Lore & Background

The park was built during a wave of new, baseball-only parks in the 1990s. Although nearly all of those parks were open-air, it was taken for granted that a domed stadium was a must for a major-league team to be viable in the Phoenix area. Phoenix is by far the hottest major city in North America; the average high temperature during baseball's regular season is 99.1 °F, and game-time temperatures well above 100 °F are common during the summer. In March 1995, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved a 0.25 percentage point increase in the county sales tax to pay for their portion of the stadium funding. That happened during a huge county budget deficit and lack of funding for other services. The sales tax was very unpopular with local citizens, who were not permitted to vote on funding a baseball stadium with general sales tax revenue. The issue was so controversial and divisive that, in August 1997, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox was shot and injured while leaving a county board meeting by Larry Naman, a disgruntled former county employee, who attempted to argue in court that his mental illness justified his attack. In May 1998, Naman was found guilty of attempted first-degree murder. The cost of the stadium was estimated at $279 million in 1995, but cost overruns, in part because of rising prices for steel and other materials, pushed the cost to $364 million. As part of the stadium deal, the Diamondbacks were responsible for all construction costs over $253 million. The extra expenses, combined with the Diamondbacks and the other expansion franchise, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, not being allowed to share in national MLB revenue for their first five years of operations, left the Diamondbacks in a less-than-desirable financial situation, which came back to haunt team founder and managing partner Jerry Colangelo and his group. Construction on the park began in 1996, and was finished just before the Diamondbacks' first season, in 1998.

Reader's Guide

Chase Field has a swimming pool located in right-center field, which is rented to patrons as a suite holding 35 guests for $3,500 per game during the 2011 season. Mark Grace was the first player to hit a home run into the pool. Besides baseball, the pool has been used by Monster Jam's Jim Koehler to continue his tradition of swimming after Freestyle. The pool which opened with the stadium in 1998, was redesigned in the offseason leading up to the 2005 season. The ballpark featured a dirt strip between home plate and the pitcher's mound until 2019. This dirt strip, sometimes known as the 'keyhole', was very common in old-time ballparks up to 1938. The dirt strip was removed when synthetic turf was installed. Comerica Park was the only other park to have one until 2025. The park's foul territory is somewhat larger than that for most ballparks built in the 1990s. With 80% of the seats in foul territory, the upper deck is one of the highest in the majors. The park's suites are tucked far under the third deck, which keeps the upper deck closer to the action, with the exception of the Dugout Suites which sit next to the home and visitor's dugouts. Before the 2008 season began, an HD scoreboard was installed beyond center field, replacing the original. The new scoreboard is 46 ft high and 136 ft wide and cost $14 million. At the time, it was the fifth-largest HD screen in Major League Baseball, behind Kauffman Stadium. The screen at Kauffman is larger in area and is square, but Chase Field's screen is wider and rectangular. Premium seating includes 4,400 club seats, 57 suites, 6 party suites, Executive suite, batters box suite, two dugout suites, and a swimming pool. The Diamondbacks and St. Louis Cardinals game on September 24, 2019, was the longest game in Chase Field's history. It lasted six hours and 53 minutes, involving 19 innings. On October 12, 2018, the Diamondbacks announced that they would replace their natural grass surface with a synthetic surface from Shaw Sports Turf for the 2019 season. In 2019, leaked images of a potential new stadium by architectural firm MEIS Architects were briefly online before being removed by the firm.

Did You Know?

• The 2001 World Series at Chase Field was only the third time the home team won the title in a dome.
• The longest game in Chase Field history by innings was a 19-inning game on August 24, 2019, lasting 6 hours and 22 minutes.