In an effort to keep people from driving or Uber-ing to the arena, the soon-to-open Chase Center and the SFMTA will be giving free Muni rides away with every ticket purchase to a concert or basketball game.
The arrangement doesn't involve any physical Muni pass or ticket — any paper or electronic ticket to an event at the Chase Center will serve as proof of payment for that entire day on Muni. As the Chronicle reports, Muni fare inspectors and gate agents will be trained to accept Chase Center tickets for this purpose starting when the arena opens in September. The deal comes following a working group convened by Mayor London Breed in February to discuss how to deal with potential traffic congestion around the arena.
"We want people to take public transit to Chase Center, so we’re making it as cheap and easy [as it can be] to do so," Breed said in a statement. "This program allows Warriors fans and concert-goers to get to the front doors of Chase Center at no extra charge."
As we reported in April, Mission Bay neighbors have been freaking out about the potential clusterfuck around the stadium and the impact it will have on street parking, and the city announced in May that it would be spending $2.5 million on new traffic cops and parking control officers dedicated to the Chase Center environs.
The SFMTA is almost finished with a project to widen the Muni platform at the UCSF/Chase Center stop on the T line, just south of South Street on Third. The platform will be able to accommodate four two-car trains to board or unload simultaneously on each side of the platform, and hold 700 people at a time.
Also, a temporary ferry terminal is potentially being installed on the waterfront beside the Chase Center, so that East Bay residents can opt for that as well.
Inevitably, though, there will be some sort of chaos surrounding the opening of this arena — and nothing Muni does ever goes that smoothly, so we'll have to see how this 700-person platform actually functions.
But hey! Free Muni rides!
Related: Metallica and SF Symphony Team Up For Inaugural Concert at Warriors Arena