Chase Field (Formerly Bank One Ballpark) - Venue Tickets, Schedules, Seating Charts, and Information

Chase Field is a baseball stadium in Phoenix, AZ and is home to the MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks of the National League. Construction on the park started on November 16, 1995 and was done right before the team’s first season started in 1998. The stadium held its first game on March 31, 1998. It was originally named Bank One Ballpark after Bank One of Chicago. When Bank One merged with the New York-based Chase, the name changed to Chase Field and was announced on September 23, 2005.

It was the first ballpark to include natural grass in a retractable roof stadium. The stadium features a swimming pool that is rented to fans and is located in the Riviera Pools Pavilion, which is next to the outfield wall in right center field. It also has a dirt strip between home plate and the pitcher’s mound; it’s one of only 2 current ballparks to have this. This strip was extremely common in the old-time ballparks.

Phoenix is the largest and most populates city in Arizona. It is the state capital and the largest state capital in the US, in terms of population. As of 2007, its population is 1,552,259, which makes it the 5th largest city in the country. It is the only state capital with a population of over one million. It is the biggest city in the Mountain Time Zone and the second biggest in the Western US, after Los Angeles, CA. A man by the name of Lord Darrell Duppa wanted to call the city Phoenix, because it was born from the Hohokam ruins.

It was officially recognized on May 4, 1868. It was incorporated on February 25, 1881 and is known by its nickname, “The Valley of the Sun.” The city has a dry climate; its summers are very hot and the winters are mild. During the summers, most days are over 100 °F and the nights are over 80 °F. In 2008, a brand new HD scoreboard was placed in centerfield and is the largest HD screen in MLB at 46 ft high and 136 ft wide.

The stadium hosted Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 of the 2001 World Series against the New York Yankees. The Diamondbacks won all 4 games at home and won the world championship that year. In March 2006, the stadium hosted the 3 first-round games of the World Baseball Classic. In the 2007 regular season, the team had mild success with their young team and posted the best record in the NL.

In the 2008 season, the team won their season opening game on the road and found they had the best MLB record at the beginning of May. They also led the National League by 6.5 games. They continued to lead the NL even though they were only 47-48 going into the All-Star break. METRO Rail’s Washington at 3rd St station will serve the stadium when service is expected to begin on December 26, 2008.