Are you hot at Chase Field? You are not alone
PHOENIX – The Arizona Diamondbacks are in top form and the fans at Chase Field are also feeling the heat.
There are many complaints about the high temperatures at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, especially upstairs. Management is aware of it too.
When you walk into Chase Field with a full house, the ice-cold water suddenly doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
“I was here Saturday and yesterday and both times it felt like a jungle. no air conditioning. It was sold out and everything was packed,” said a fan named Joey Fraley.
Derrick Hall, president and CEO of the Diamondbacks, says a 26-year-old cooling system is to blame.
“It’s the same system that cools a lot of buildings downtown. So what happens is they cool water, they actually freeze it, and then those ice cubes go back into the building, and it arrives at a very low temperature, about 30 degrees, but we can’t leave it on for more than 12 to 15 hours, so we really have to plan it in a very technical way,” he explained.
It’s not just the hot temperatures that have given Diamondbacks fans something to talk about; the players have also spoken out.
“Sometimes it’s like pitching in the jungle here. I don’t know how it gets so humid. I swear, in the summer it’s less humid in St. Louis than it is here. You just have to fight through it,” said D-backs pitcher Jordan Montgomery.
Season ticket holders also have their say.
“It’s almost like it goes off and then you feel it come back on,” said Terry Young. “I also think it depends on where you’re sitting.”
Kelly Dale said, “I think if it went down a little bit more, it would probably be more of a good thing for a lot of people. People from out of town want to have that experience, and you don’t want to ruin it by being super hot and trying to enjoy a ball game.”
The temperature at Chase Field is about 75 to 77 degrees. Hall says the goal is to get the temperature back down to just above 70 degrees, and the only solution is to replace the entire cooling system.
“Once we know we’re going to be here for a long time, we’ll be able to overhaul the system. I hope that can be done in the offseason when we can tweak it and get it back to the shape it was in, for example, when we started building it,” Hall said.
In the meantime, Hall says he is considering involving fans until a permanent solution is found.
