Chase Field: The History, the Dimensions and How the Park Plays

By 4Baseball Staff · November 5, 2026 · 13 min read

A guide to Chase Field in Phoenix, the Diamondbacks' only home since the club's first season: its names, dimensions, retractable roof and desert setting, and what they mean for hitters, pitchers and fans.

Chase Field is the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and it is the only major-league home the club has ever had. According to the historical record, the Diamondbacks played their first season in 1998 in a park then called Bank One Ballpark, and they were still there in 2025 under the Chase Field name. That makes it one of the simplest franchise-and-ballpark stories in the game: one club, one building, two names, and a roof that exists because Phoenix in July is not a place anyone wants to sit outdoors for three hours.

What makes the park interesting to a baseball reader is the combination of three things. It sits about 1,086 feet above sea level in a hot, dry desert city. It has a retractable roof that lets the club play indoors or outdoors. And its outfield is shaped unevenly, with short corners and a center field that is much deeper than either line. Together those features give the park a character that is different from a cavernous pitchers' park by the ocean and different again from Denver's thin air.

This guide covers where the club came from, how the park got its two names, what the dimensions say about the way the field plays, what the roof and the climate change, and how to plan a visit without relying on details that go out of date. Where the numbers come from the historical record or the site's own reference data, the text says so, and where a fact changes from year to year, it points you to the official source.

A club created for 1998 and a park that opened with it

The site's club data lists the Diamondbacks as founded in 1996. Major League Baseball had in fact awarded the franchise to Phoenix in March 1995, and the club was placed in the National League in January 1997. The club did not take the field until 1998, and its home was built for it from the start. There was no borrowed stadium in the early years, which sets the Diamondbacks apart from several other recent expansion clubs that began life in a stadium built for another sport or another team. Their first game in Phoenix was played in the park that is the subject of this article.

The first season went the way many expansion seasons do. The historical record shows the 1998 club at 65 wins and 97 losses, in the bottom spot of its division. The crowds, though, were enormous for a new team. The database lists a home attendance of 3,610,290 for 1998, which remains the club's highest single-season total and is about 1.1 million more than the best the club has drawn since the park was renamed Chase Field. A brand-new team, a brand-new ballpark and a large new market produced a rush of curiosity that no later season has matched.

That attendance figure is worth a sentence of caution. It tells you about the novelty of 1998, not about how the park fills on an ordinary night. Capacity in the site's reference data is 48,330, so a season of more than 3.6 million over 81 home dates means the park was close to full on an average night in the opening year. The best total recorded under the Chase Field name, 2,509,924, is a healthier measure of what the park draws when the team is good and the novelty has worn off, and it still represents a strong turnout by any measure.

Two names, one building

The historical record lists two park names for the club across its history. From 1998 through 2005 the park is Bank One Ballpark. From 2006 through 2025 it is Chase Field. The building did not change between those years. What changed was the name on the front, after the bank that held the naming rights was absorbed into a larger one. The reason this matters for researchers is that older box scores, record books and photographs use the first name, and newer ones use the second, so a search for either name should lead to the same field.

There is no earlier park to list. Most long-established clubs have a trail of old stadiums behind them, and the Dodgers, for example, moved through several homes over their long history, as the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers shows. The Diamondbacks, by contrast, have had one address for their entire existence in the historical record. When you read about the club's first division title in 1999 or its World Series win in 2001, the park in the background is this one.

The naming-rights pattern is common in the modern game. A ballpark name is a sponsorship deal with a finite term, and it can change when a company merges, rebrands or declines to renew. If you are citing the park in an article of your own, the safe habit is to name the year. The 1998 Diamondbacks played at Bank One Ballpark, and the 2023 Diamondbacks played at Chase Field, and both statements describe the same address.

The numbers on the wall: the dimensions

The site's reference data gives these fence distances, measured in feet from home plate. The table adds a column describing the position of each, because the names are shorthand: left field and right field are the foul lines, the two center-field gaps are the power alleys, and center is straight away.

Two things stand out. The lines are short. A left-field line of 330 feet and a right-field corner of 335 feet are on the short side for the majors, so a pulled fly ball that would be a routine out in a deep corner can reach the seats. And center field is the deepest point on the list. The site's data puts straightaway center at 407 feet and both power alleys at 376, which is 31 feet shorter than center and 41 to 46 feet deeper than the lines. The fence therefore runs from short at the lines to deep at center, with the alleys sitting between the two. Treat these as the distances listed on the site: clubs adjust walls over time, and published listings of the fence can show other points along the curve, so the five numbers are a summary and not a survey.

The result is a field with a wide range of outcomes. The short lines reward hitters who pull the ball in the air, while the 407-foot center field turns some hard-hit drives that would be home runs in a shallower park into long outs or extra-base hits. A fast outfielder can cover a lot of ground, and a runner who gets a ball in either gap has a good chance at an extra base. Fielding a ball in the 376-foot alleys or out toward center and getting it back to the infield takes time, so a fast runner has a real chance to take the extra base.

For a fantasy player or a bettor looking at the park, the lesson is that dimensions alone do not give a "hitter's park" or "pitcher's park" label. A park with short lines and a deep center field can suppress home runs to dead center and help them to the corners, and the net effect depends on the kind of hitter. Using park factors and weather in fantasy baseball explains how to look at multi-year park factors, which measure the outcomes directly, instead of reading the fence numbers and guessing.

The roof, the surface and the orientation

The site's reference data describes the roof as retractable and lists the capacity at 48,330. The roof is the park's defining feature. A retractable roof lets the club close the building for hot afternoons and evenings, which in the Phoenix summer matters for the comfort of players and fans alike, and open it on mild nights so the game can be played outdoors. Whether the roof is open or closed on a given date is a decision made by the club under its own procedures, and the status can change as game time approaches. If it matters to you, check the club's game-day information.

A closed roof changes the game in a few ways that are worth knowing. There is no wind to speak of, so fly balls behave in a more predictable way and the weather inputs that analysts use for other parks are mostly irrelevant. There is no rain delay risk. And the air inside is conditioned, which means a ball hit on a closed-roof night does not behave exactly as it would in the desert heat outside. This is why a table of weather and park effects is more useful if it separates open-roof from closed-roof games, when the data allows.

On the surface, the site's reference data lists turf. Ballpark surfaces are changed from time to time, so treat that as a snapshot of the data the site holds and confirm the current surface through the club before you rely on it. Surface matters for baseball because a ball hit on artificial turf generally bounces higher and faster than one hit on natural grass, which gives infield singles a better chance of getting through and makes the outfielders' positioning more important.

The data also records an azimuth of 0 degrees, which in this dataset means the line from home plate to center field points toward north. For an outdoor park the compass direction decides where the sun sits during the afternoon and which batters have to look into it. For a park that can close its roof, the orientation matters less than it would elsewhere, and the roof can solve most sun problems on its own terms.

Desert air and a thousand feet of elevation

The park sits at an elevation of about 1,086 feet in the site's data. That is not extreme. Denver is roughly a mile above sea level, and the history of the Colorado Rockies is partly a story of how thin air changes the way a baseball behaves. Phoenix is far lower. But 1,086 feet is still higher than most major-league cities, and the air in the desert is dry and warm during much of the season.

Both facts push in the same direction in theory. Air that is warmer and less dense offers less drag, so a batted ball carries a little farther, and a pitched ball has a little less to bite on, so breaking pitches break a little less. The effect is real, but it is smaller than the Colorado effect, and it interacts with the roof, the humidity in the building and the condition of the baseballs. Nothing here supports a claim like "Chase Field adds so many feet to every fly ball". What can be said is that the park is commonly described as favorable to hitters and that you should check recent park factors for the current picture.

Why the caution? Because park effects drift. The league changes the baseball, teams change their approach, a ballpark's grounds crew changes the field, and a run environment that looked one way for five years can look different for the next five. A reliable statement about a park comes from several years of results measured against the rest of the league, not from the fence distances or the elevation alone.

What the Diamondbacks' record says about the park

The club's results at the park are not available as a home-and-road split in the data this article uses, so it is not possible to say how the team hit or pitched at home as opposed to on the road. What the historical record does give is the club's career leaders, and they show the kind of players who built the franchise's history in this building.

On the batting side, Luis Gonzalez leads the club in home runs with 224 in his years from 1999 to 2006, followed by Paul Goldschmidt with 209 from 2011 to 2018 and Ketel Marte with 168 from 2017 to 2025. Gonzalez also leads in hits (1,337), RBI (774) and runs (780). Tony Womack holds the club stolen-base record with 182, and Corbin Carroll, the 2023 Rookie of the Year, already has 123 through 2025. A park with a deep center field tends to suit athletic outfielders and players who hit the ball hard to the gaps, and that profile is visible in the speed totals.

The pitching side is dominated by one name. Randy Johnson won 118 games for the club between 1999 and 2008, struck out 2,077 batters and held a 2.83 ERA in more than 1,000 innings. He won the Cy Young Award in four straight seasons from 1999 to 2002. Brandon Webb, the sinkerball pitcher who won the 2006 Cy Young Award, is second in the club's wins list with 87 and has a 3.27 ERA. Pitchers who keep the ball on the ground have a natural advantage in a park with a deep center field and a large outfield, because grounders do not need the fence to be defended.

None of this proves that the park produced the numbers. Gonzalez, Goldschmidt and Johnson were great players who would have been great in another building, and their totals reflect their own ability as much as a park. The better use of these lists is to see who the franchise leaned on, and to read the club's story in the Diamondbacks' franchise history and in the list of the best Diamondbacks, position by position.

Moments that happened under the roof

The Diamondbacks' best seasons by winning percentage in the historical record were 1999 (100-62), 2002 (98-64), 2011 (94-68), 2017 (93-69), 2001 (92-70) and 2007 (90-72). They won division titles in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2007 and 2011, and the 2001 team won the World Series by beating the New York Yankees four games to three, after beating the Cardinals in the division series and the Braves in the league championship series. The club returned to the Series in 2023 as a wild-card team, beating the Brewers, the Dodgers and the Phillies before losing to the Texas Rangers four games to one.

Which of those games were played in Phoenix depends on the schedule and the format, and the details are not part of the data used here, so this article does not claim a particular game happened at a particular park. What can be said is that the Diamondbacks' home games in every one of those seasons took place in the park described here, because it has been their only park. The 2001 World Series and the 2023 World Series are both part of the history of this address. For a fuller account of each October, see the best Diamondbacks seasons and every postseason run, and for the way the final series has been played over the years, see the history of the World Series.

The worst seasons are part of the park's story as well. The historical record shows the club at 51-111 in 2004 and 52-110 in 2021. A ballpark does not cause a bad team, but the long losing stretches are part of the history of the building too.

Planning a visit

A few general points help most visitors, and none of them depend on prices or schedules that change.

• Check the roof and the heat. Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, so in summer the local clock matches Pacific time and start times that look unusual on a schedule are explained by that. Day games in the hottest months are scheduled with the roof in mind, and the club's website will tell you what to expect.
• Learn the layout before you buy. The site's reference data lists the capacity at 48,330 and the park has several seating levels. Pick seats for the thing you care about: shade, a view of the gaps, a view of the pitching, or proximity to the field.
• Use the official channels. For tickets, gate times, bag policies, parking and food, rely on the club and the ballpark. These details change, and a general article cannot track them.
• Plan around the schedule. The schedule and the team page for the Diamondbacks show upcoming home dates, and the Chase Field page collects the park data the site holds.
• Bring sun protection even if the roof might close. Walking to and from the park, and any time the roof is open, you are in the same sun everyone else in Phoenix is in.

For families, the most useful advice is to treat the first visit as a learning trip. Arrive early enough to see the park, find your seats and watch batting practice, and leave room in the plan for the weather on the way in and out.

Common questions

Is Chase Field a hitter's park or a pitcher's park? It is commonly described as favorable to hitters, but the answer depends on the years you look at and the kind of hitter. The short lines and the deep center field pull in opposite directions, and the best evidence is a multi-year park factor. Our fantasy guide to park factors explains how to read them.

Was it always called Chase Field? No. The historical record lists the park as Bank One Ballpark for 1998 through 2005 and Chase Field from 2006 onward. It is the same building under a new sponsor's name.

Has the club played anywhere else? Not in the historical record. The Diamondbacks have only ever listed these two names, which are one ballpark. Their spring-training facility is a separate matter and is outside the scope of this guide.

How many people does it hold? The site's reference data lists a capacity of 48,330. Actual attendance varies with the game, and the number can change if the park is reconfigured, so check the club for the current figure.

Does the roof always close? No. The roof is retractable, and the club decides how to use it from game to game. A closed roof removes wind and rain from the equation, and an open roof lets the game play like an outdoor one.

Where to go next

For the club behind the park, start with the history of the Arizona Diamondbacks, then compare the setting with its division rivals in the history of the San Diego Padres. The Diamondbacks team page shows the live record and the next game, and the Chase Field page holds the park's reference data.