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Chase Centre Risk Management

Chase Center is a newly built multipurpose arena under construction in Mission Bay San Francisco, California. The innovative structure is planned and intended to be the new home venue for the Golden State Warriors, one of the National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. The team has been playing at the Oracle Arena in Oakland since 1971 to date. Chase Centre will be the Warriors new home venue and is scheduled to open to the public on 6^th September 2019 before the start of the 2019-20 NBA season (Badenhausen, 2017). A significant number of individuals are curious about the new grounds and how it may impact the community, especially in the Mission Bay area. Although different risks characterize various projects such as the Chase Centre, quality solutions, including proper financing and scheduling technique and cost estimation can be adopted to mitigate the emerging challenges.

Section 1

About Chase Centre

By building the Chase Centre, the Warriors are transitioning from being tenants in Oakland to landlords in San Francisco. The building is privately financed by commercial personalities such as Joe Lacob, a billionaire capitalist at Kleiner Perkins and his partner Peter Guber (Badenhausen, 2017). The complex is about 580, 000 square feet near an office space where companies such as Uber will have their headquarters. The location also has over 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The general structure of the arena has multiple layers and floors and a seating capacity of 18, 064 people. Chase Centre represents all the best that the Mission Bay neighborhood has to offer. The structure brings value to the people and the general community in the area, considering there is a state of art technology, first-to-market experiential retail, farm to table dining and other fitness and service amenities (Badenhausen, 2017). Chase Centre draws attention from local and regional visitors given its ability to highlight the beauty, innovation, and ingenuity of the Bay Area.

The completion of Chase Centre will not only attract visitors and tourists, but most of the development strategies put under consideration aim at giving back to the community that helps the stakeholders thrive. The mission of Chase Centres Assists program is to manage and address the Mission Bay area’s social and economic challenges and pave the way for more opportunities through community partnerships (Badenhausen, 2017). The program is engineered by three pillars, including small business assistance, which helps to build capacity, provide critical resources and opportunities to local, small, and minority-owned companies and businesses. Second, the program enhances affordable housing growth, which transforms housing sites into a thriving, and vibrant community via holistic revitalization.

Lastly, the center offers various training and education programs aiming at providing career advancement opportunities to a significant number of Mission Bay Area residents. After announcing the plan to move to Mission Bay, the Warriors engaged in thoughtful community outreach processes to help them understand the needs and wants of the community in the area. After years of learning and public planning, the foundation has designed and built a beacon that reflects every aspect of the community. Within Chase Centre, there is also the Warriors Community Foundation, which is committed to supporting underserved youths in Mission Bay Area. Therefore, Chase Centre, home venue for the Golden State Warriors is likely to bring more benefits not only to the team and the foundation but also to the community at large.

Section Two

Major Risks in the Construction of Chase Centre

According to Kendrick (2015), all projects experience risks, and there are always uncertainties on how they might turn out. Though the development and completion of Chase Centre bring a substantial number of benefits to the Warriors team and the community at the Bay Area, it also poses significant risks and possible challenges to the people. First, the development of the Chase Centre site exposed severe risks to the people working in the construction site (Kilpatrick, 2018). The area designated for the arena was limited complicating the architectural planning, which was to include the arena, plaza, towers, and parking. The variable bay mud also complicated excavations for underground architecture that risked the lives of the construction workers and that of the area residents. The space given for construction was small, and soil conditions were poor endangering the safety of all the workers as a result of many working instructions under small space. Wind patterns also posed higher risks to workers and the site layout. Second, digging out 300,000 cubic yards of muddy soil posed more significant risks to the construction workers’ health and life in general (Kilpatrick, 2018). The excavating was done for approximately five months as the mire was inconstant and full of random, especially with regards to the site’s history as a railyard. The Chase Centre site also had subgrades of various depths that risked individuals to severe accidents and even death.

Third, the roofing of Chase Centre was a risk that endangered the lives of the workers and the other sections of the new building. The roofing was also rushed to ensure a covered structure before November winter rains. The workers had to work overtime to meet this deadline. The sound pollution and other activities were also risk factors to the community, especially for UCSF students, residents, and the staff at the UCSF Medical Centre. Mission Bay area has numerous biotechnology organizations. Therefore, Chase Centre development team met with the biotech community. Nonetheless, with a plan intended to attract basketball supporters, shoppers, and office workers to the area, deliberations did not end with just the structure. The construction and completion of Chase Centre for the Warriors also poses the risk of gentrification in Mission Bay Area.

The center will also attract more wealthy people to the Bay area, and real estate will go high, displacing most of the local community and increasing the cost of living. Moreover, changing the home venue for the warriors is a risk that would change Warriors, future performance, their influence, and their fans. Some of the fans who have supported the team at Oracle Arena may feel grassed with the team moving to the new venue at San Francisco. Besides, there is also an issue of public expenses associated with the new complex both in San Francisco and Oakland. Oakland will lose one of its most significant source of revenue while San Francisco, especially the Mission Bay area, will experience high costs of basic needs to match up to changes brought by the new arena (Dyke, 2019). Lastly, future transportation is a risk that will have adverse effects on the community due to more transport issues in the area, especially during annual games when Warriors’ fans come to town.

Due to the risks encountered by the development team during construction, numerous steps and strategies were put in place to ensure the safety of workers, the Bay, and the community at large. The design started with a 1000-stall, two-story underground parking with one entrance and loading dock for trucks to ensure that employees worked efficiently in the space allocated. The construction authority had to ensure efficiency and the safety of the workers. With the soil issues and risks in the Bay area, the architect decided that before the excavation, the workers built an underground cement deep soil mixing to ensure a strong foundation of the building. Working near water also created numerous challenges for the project. Therefore, the team opted to enclose the site in the form of a “bathtub” instead of fitting a dewatering system that risks dewatering extents outside the property line. The team poured the structural slab in small sizes. They also scheduled crane activities and coordinated their heights to minimize noise pollution and crane conflicts. The Warriors and Chase Centre team applied many strategies to ensure success upon completion of the building.

Section Three

Impact Score of the Above Risks

When the Warriors team decided to move from the Oracle Centre and build the new Chase Centre, they were aware of the expected risks during construction and upon completion. Constructing the depicted design for Chase Centre in the small space allocated was expected to expose construction workers, the surrounding areas, and the whole Bay area community to high risks. The muddy soil in the area considerably risked the health and life of the workers (Williams, 2017). Moreover, the construction site posed significant risks in regards to accidents for workers and area residents, given the deep pits dug while setting the foundation. Overall, the whole construction posed substantial risks to the health and lives of the people in the area.

Also, relocating from Oracle in Oakland to Chase Center in San Francisco was a bold move for Golden State Warriors considering that most of their fans were in Oakland. The Warriors team is one of the widely known teams in the NBA. After moving to Chase Centre, the team faces the highest risk of losing their fans. They have hosted several events in the San Francisco arena, which were followed by their announcement that the first Warriors game in November 2019 would be against Lebron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Warriors are excited to make their vision come true and are aware of the benefits that Chase Centre brings to the Bay Area. Typically, moving to a new arena raises concerns on whether they will maintain the great Oracle Arena atmosphere at the new complex.

Warriors are widely known for their unrelenting determination, and though they have finally achieved such success, there still lies the question of whether they are at risk of losing their vibe and fans in their new home (Williams, 2017). Also, due to traffic around Chase Centre during seasonal games, there are high chances of transport issues during this time. A significant number of people will be coming going out of Chase Centre, which will create more traffic in the area and may even result in incidences of accidents if the situation is not properly managed. In consideration of a variety of factors, risks such as transportation and construction of Chase Centre do not adversely affect the Warriors; however, migrating from one arena to another has severe consequences on the team’s future as not all their fans are willing to support them after relocating to San Francisco.

Section Four

Possible Risk Responses

The risk management process involves four procedures, identifying risks, assessing and evaluating their probability and impact on the project, planning a risk response for each threat, and monitoring the progress of the project. After identifying the possible risks associated with or linked to the construction and completion of Chase Centre and assessing their impact on the project and the team, one needs to evaluate some of the possible risk responses in this case. One of the essential strategies for responding to risks is avoidance (Roseke, 2015). Evading risks means reducing the probability of it happening or causing any problems to the project to zero. In this case, Chase Centre development team avoid risks by making efficient and effective schedules during construction and efficiently managing the events held at the building to reduce risky situations or problems. The second approach is accepting the risks, which involves dealing with and managing unprecedented consequences (Roseke, 2015). When the Warriors decided to move to Francisco, they made a risky decision and are obligated to dealing with any risks and their consequences to ensure the success of the Chase Centre project.

The third process involves monitoring and preparing. Besides accepting risks, this response applies to major threats that have a high severity and probability (Roseke, 2015). The intervention entails creating plans for monitoring factors that trigger certain risks and building implementable action plans in case a risk occurs. The process may also include identifying possible risks in the area where the project is taking place and determining the most effective solutions to the problems. Forth, the mitigation of risks is a crucial risk response process. Risks involve functions of severity and probability. Therefore, these factors can be scrutinized to reduce project failure. The process helps in taking measures to reduce the likelihood of a risk occurrence and reducing the impact or consequences of a risk on the critical success factors of the project. Some of the ideas applicable in this process include minimizing complexity in operations and procedures, adding more resources, performing more tests, providing enough time for the project, creating detailed designs and prototypes, adding technical training to the workers and engineers and writing down additional specifications.

Lastly, a team can transfer the risk onto another party or designers to help or take full control of the project, which helps in managing threats (Williams, 2017). Transference is achievable through purchasing insurance, outsourcing difficult work to a more experienced or resourceful company, using fixed prices instead of unit price contracts, and removing warranties or guarantees. Managing and preventing risks and related problems is one of the most critical processes in ensuring the completion and continuous success of a project. Dealing with these risks involves creating a risk log for each item and writing a strategy effective in dealing with each risk and eventually attaining success

Section Five

High-Level Quantitative Estimate

Chase Centre is currently known as the best sports arena in the world. The project was self-financed, and it took about $1.4 billion to complete. When designing and developing the plan, the team and workers were cautious about the risks expected during and after completion. More so, the space allocated for the project, soil condition, and the historical events in the area brought about more threats during construction. These risks created the need for a high-level quantitative estimate of the cost and schedule impact in an attempt to address the actual impact caused by each risk should it occur. According to Dyke (2019), producing an accurate constructions cost estimates for a project determining how much it is going to use and for how long is essential. Risk analysis requires the assessment of any foreseeable risks or problems to a particular project, and that mitigation is in place to minimize their impacts or effects as low as possible (Tavant & Lee, 2017). In this case, many of the risks identified in Chase Centre relates to the successful completion of the building, the workers’ and team’s health, safety and lives and the effect of the project to the community in Mission Bay.

Quantitative Estimates

Foreseeable events in risk management usually involve sequences of activities that can lead to adverse effects or hazardous situation and harm (Tavanti & Lee, 2017). Also, a hazard cannot result in ham unless some events lead to a dangerous situation. The severity of a risk is usually categorized as either negligible, moderate, or severe, depending on the impact score. The construct validity of risk analysis at estimating the correct risk profile is determined by the probability of the harm occurring and accuracy in harm severity estimates. According to Stenbeck (2008), estimates are crucial in project management as they reflect reality, motivate fulfillment, and facilitate accountability. The severity of harm can be defined based on the effects experienced by construction workers and supported by actual data such as medical bills and report while the probability of risk’s occurrence is as a result of a series of activities and circumstances.

In this case, the estimated cost and schedule also had an impact on the actual risk impacts. The construction was exposed to numerous risks, which needed to be tackled immediately and efficiently since the arena had limited time for development. The Warriors purchased 11 acres of land in Mission Bay in 2014, where they planned to invest on a 1 billion dollar arena, Chase Centre, arranged to open in September 2019 (Murray, 2019). In consideration of the numerous risks mentioned above, which mostly relates to the construction of the arena, three years were limited to manage the risks encountered and ensure successful completion of Chase Centre project that led to higher costs of up to $1.4 billion upon completion.

The construction of the project led to the workers experiencing numerous challenges, which risked their lives and health, but, they had to work with the funds allocated for each year of construction. Financial and scheduling issues led to more problems as the workers had to work more hours with fewer resources to meet the given deadline risking their health and lives. Therefore, they asked for more funding that could help prevent, manage, or solve both expected and unexpected obstacles during construction. The team and the leaders could develop effective strategies to deal with other risks related to transport and their fans after they move to Chase Centre. These strategies could include advertising their events and the benefits of the new arena and creating more pathways and parking areas to manage traffic and reduce clouding, minimizing interference with the Bay operations and the general community. Chase Centre is the best sports arena, and with proper risk management, the Warriors team could overcome any obstacles or risks encountered maintaining their high position in the NBA.

References

Badenhausen, K (2017). "Golden State Warriors break bround on new $1 Billion Chase Center." Forbes. Retrieved from www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/01/17/golden-state-warriors-break-ground-on-new-1-billion-chase-center/#4c9401a3733f.

Davis, S (2019). "Warriors President Rick Welts explains why their new, $1.4 billion, self-financed stadium was a perfect storm other teams can't replicate." Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.pulse.com.gh/bi/sports/warriors-president-rick-welts-explains-why-their-new-dollar14-billion-self-financed/02kpqce

Dyke, V (2019). "Fast, accurate techniques for estimating construction costs." Fine Homebuilding. Retrieved from www.finehomebuilding.com/2017/08/09/estimating-construction-costs.

Kendrick, T (2015). Identifying and managing project risk: essential tools for failure-proofing your project. New York: Amacom.

Kilpatrick, C (2018). "Warriors Basketball Arena stays in lead at halftime." ENR California. Retrieved from http://www.enr.com/articles/44887-warriors-basketball-arena-stays-in-lead-at-halftime

Murray, P (2019). "Golden State Warriors President Rick welts on achieving the vision for the Chase Center." Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmurray/2019/03/20/golden-state-warriors-president-rick-welts-on-achieving-the-vision-for-the-chase-center/#7acd385d3126">

Roseke, B (2015). "5 risk response strategies." ProjectEngineer. Retrieved from http://www.projectengineer.net/5-risk-response-strategies/

Stenbeck, J (2008). "Five keys to estimating." PMI | Project Management Institute. Retrieved from www.pmi.org/learning/library/five-keys-accurate-project-estimating-6927.

Tavanti, M & Lee W (2017). "A method for a quantitative estimate of risk probability in use risk assessment." Retrieved from https://www.hfes-europe.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tavanti2017.pdf.

Williams, C (2017). "4 risk response strategies you will have to consider after assessing risks." ERM Insights. Retrieved from http://www.erminsightsbycarol.com/risk-response-strategies/