Why Chase Field Matters

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Chase Field opened on March 31, 1998 as Bank One Ballpark, and the building was a first in the majors: 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. It was also the first MLB park with a swimming pool, 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. 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 some of its home runs to a humidor and a turf swap, hosted another World Series in 2023, and in 2025 got a state law to pay for repairs, though no new lease had been signed as of October 2026.

The opening in 1998 and the BOB

Phoenix was awarded an expansion franchise, and the Arizona Diamondbacks began play in 1998. Ellerbe Becket designed the airport-hangar-shaped building, with a retractable roof over a natural-grass field, the first of its kind, 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. 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 about 4 miles of cable to move it
• About 4 to 5 minutes to open or close

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 was the star pitcher on 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 the majors. Dry desert air and an elevation of about 1,059 feet helped the ball carry. Then the Diamondbacks installed a humidor in 2018, MLB’s second after Coors Field, and switched from natural grass to synthetic turf in 2019. Together the two changes cut down on home runs, though Statcast’s park factors for 2023 through 2025 still rate Chase Field above average for runs scored.

The fences were never moved 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 2025 stadium law

Chase Field is publicly owned, by the Maricopa County Stadium District. In 2025, Arizona passed House Bill 2704, and Governor Katie Hobbs signed it into law. It sends sales taxes from business at Chase Field and the district’s buildings next to it, plus income taxes that members of the home and visiting teams pay on their work at Chase Field, to repairs and renovations. The total is capped at $500 million, and the cap rises 3 percent a year starting in 2027. The law also sets penalties if the Diamondbacks leave Arizona before 2050. As of October 2026, though, the team and the county had not signed a lease, and the D-backs can’t get that money until they do. They are playing under a memorandum of understanding with the county that runs out after the 2027 season.

The new scoreboard that went up in center field before the 2026 season, at nearly 9,600 square feet and about 52 percent larger than the one it replaced, was part of about $20 million in repairs the county stadium board had made as of July 2026.

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 D-backs announced a team Hall of Fame in 2023, and Luis Gonzalez and Randy Johnson were its first inductees, in 2024.

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