Why Chase Field Matters

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The quick read

Chase Field opened on March 31, 1998 as Bank One Ballpark, and the building was a first in baseball: a retractable roof stretched over natural grass. A traditional open-air park does not work in Phoenix’s summer heat, so the Diamondbacks got an airport-hangar-shaped building in downtown Phoenix instead. With the roof closed, the air conditioning brings the bowl down near 78 degrees against a 100-plus afternoon. It is also the only big-league park with a swimming pool inside it, out behind the right-center field wall.

The history packed into the place is short and loud. The Diamondbacks began play in 1998 and won the World Series in 2001, their fourth season, the fastest any expansion team has ever reached a title. They beat the three-time-defending-champion Yankees on Luis Gonzalez’s walk-off single off Mariano Rivera in Game 7. Randy Johnson won 4 straight Cy Young Awards in Arizona and threw a perfect game in 2004. The park lost its name in a bank merger, lost its hitter’s-park reputation to a humidor and a turf swap, hosted another World Series in 2023, and in 2025 landed a renovation deal that keeps the team downtown for about 30 more years.

The opening in 1998 and the BOB

Phoenix was awarded an expansion franchise, and the Arizona Diamondbacks began play in 1998. A traditional open-air ballpark was never workable in Phoenix’s summer heat, so the team built something baseball had not seen: a retractable roof over a natural-grass field, the first of its kind. Ellerbe Becket designed the airport-hangar-shaped building, and it cost about $354 million to build.

It opened as Bank One Ballpark, nicknamed “the BOB,” on March 31, 1998. The Diamondbacks lost the opener 9-2 to the Colorado Rockies in front of 50,179. Travis Lee collected the first hit, home run, and RBI in franchise history. The team drew more than 3.6 million fans in year one.

The roof is its own piece of engineering:

• 9 million pounds of structural steel
• Two 200-horsepower motors and more than 4 miles of cable to move it
• About 4 to 5 minutes to open or close

The Northwinds cooling system is why the air conditioning here keeps running with the roof open, which no other big-league park with a retractable roof can do.

The 2001 World Series

In their fourth season, the 2001 Diamondbacks won the World Series, beating the three-time-defending-champion New York Yankees 4 games to 3. The series was played in the shadow of the September 11 attacks, and it was the first World Series to run into November.

The franchise memory is Game 7 at the BOB on November 4, 2001. Bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, Mariano Rivera on the mound, and Luis Gonzalez dropped a single over the drawn-in infield to win it 3-2. It made Arizona the fastest expansion team ever to win a World Series.

Randy Johnson, Luis Gonzalez, and the early stars

Randy Johnson anchored those early teams. He won 4 straight NL Cy Young Awards in Arizona, threw a perfect game on May 18, 2004, and recorded his 4,000th career strikeout at the park that same year. His No. 51 was retired in 2015, and he entered the Hall of Fame as a Diamondback.

Luis Gonzalez, the 2001 hero and the franchise home-run leader, had his No. 20 retired in 2010. The park hosted the 2011 All-Star Game.

The name change and the humidor era

After Bank One merged into JPMorgan Chase, the ballpark was renamed Chase Field in September 2005. Chase’s naming rights run through 2028.

For its first two decades the park was one of the best hitters’ parks in baseball. Dry desert air, an elevation of about 1,059 feet, and a big outfield with deep corners helped the ball carry. That reputation is out of date now, and the reason matters. The team installed a humidor in 2018, MLB’s second after Coors Field, then switched from natural grass to synthetic turf in 2019. Together the two changes suppressed home runs and offense enough to turn a launching pad into a neutral-to-pitcher’s park.

None of that came from moving the fences in. The outfield dimensions have been essentially stable since the park opened, and the deep angular corners, the triangular nooks in front of the bullpens, and the 25-foot wall in center are all original 1998 design.

The 2023 pennant and the modern era

The Diamondbacks won the National League pennant in 2023 and brought World Series baseball back to the building, though the Texas Rangers took the title. The current core runs through Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte.

The 2025 renovation deal

Chase Field is publicly owned, by the Maricopa County Stadium District, and the team’s lease was set to run out in 2027. In 2025, Arizona passed House Bill 2704, and Governor Katie Hobbs signed it. The renovation deal it funds keeps the Diamondbacks in downtown Phoenix for about 30 more years. The numbers:

• About $500 million in public money, recaptured from sales taxes generated at and around the ballpark
• About $250 million from the Diamondbacks
• Roughly $750 million total

The money goes to the aging air conditioning and roof systems, a new scoreboard, and core infrastructure. A 9,600-square-foot scoreboard, about 52 percent larger than the one it replaced, went in before the 2026 season.

Retired numbers

The Diamondbacks have retired two numbers of their own: 20 (Luis Gonzalez, 2010) and 51 (Randy Johnson, 2015). 42 is retired for Jackie Robinson across all of baseball, Arizona included. The team also keeps a Ring of Honor for other franchise figures.

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