Chase Field
Chase Field is a baseball park located in the city of Phoenix, Arizona. It serves as the home turf for the Diamondbacks, Phoenix's own major league baseball team. The stadium opened up in the late 1990s, and it was fairly innovative for its time. At the time of its inauguration in 1998, Chase Field, formerly known as Bank One Ballpark, was the first stadium in the United States to have a retractable roof and a playing surface made with natural grass. The stadium's name changed because Bank One merged with JPMorgan Chase & Co, rebranding the venue as Chase Field. However, the natural grass was replaced by synthetic turf back in 2019 since the latter was more manageable and cost-effective, especially due to the extremely hot summer weather making it difficult to keep the natural grass in good shape. Although the stadium opened to the public in 1998, it took quite some time for the project to take off. In 1994, the project came to a temporary halt due to some issues concerning funding and budgeting, with some citizens being unhappy that public subsidies (i.e., tax money) were being used to fund the construction of a stadium. The dispute ended tragically when a man shot the county supervisor, who was injured but survived.
In the mid-60s, there was a massive wave of new stadiums, and what many people considered to be a second wave happened in the 1990s. The Chase Field stadium happens to be a perfect example of this, as it became one of the country's most prestigious baseball parks. Building and managing the structure is no easy task, considering Phoenix is the hottest major city in the whole of North America. The average high temperature during a game can be quite grueling, averaging between 99 and 100 Fahrenheit degrees (roughly 37-38 celsius degree, for those overseas). The Chase Field had to develop a roof and cooling system, given the extremely hot temperatures to expect in the Phoenix area. It takes only four and a half minutes to open the entire roof completely! There is also a state-of-the-art system to provided chilled water, so powerful that it serves well over 30 other buildings in the downtown area!
The venue came up with a unique way to fight the heat: a swimming pool. That's right, this stadium has its own swimming pool, which happens to be located in the right-center field. Those who attend games can book a spot by the pool in the same way as if it was a luxury suite, with prices ranging from $3500 to $4000 per game for one of the 35 spots available in the pool area. Player Mark Grace was the first one to ever hit a home run into the swimming pool. Being there must have been a one-of-a-kind experience: it's not every day that you get to sit by the pool when a major league player hits a home run in the water!
In addition to baseball, the stadium hosts a wide variety of other events, including concerts and other sports. The Chase Field hosted performers such as NSYNC at the height of their fame in 2001, as well as Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett, Old Dominion, Leon Proctor, and the piano man himself, Billy Joel, who was the highest-grossing artists to play the Chase, in terms of revenues. For several years, Chase Field hosted Monster Jam, which took place there from 1999 to 2015. Eventually, Monster Jam moved to the University of Phoenix stadium starting from the 2016 edition. One of the most iconic events to ever take place at the Chase field was WWE's Royal Rumble, which took place on January 27th, 2019, making it the first time in over 16 years that a WWE event of any kind was held at a baseball stadium. While the event would have likely continued for another edition, the COVID-19 pandemic put further plans on hold, and the future is uncertain, at least for now.