SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Golden State Warriors, GSW Arena LLC and Accenture (NYSE:ACN) announced today a multi-year partnership to reinvent the fan and community experience at Chase Center and the surrounding district. Accenture has been named the Official Technology Innovation Partner for the Warriors and will begin its relationship this season at Oracle Arena. Accenture will also be a Founding Partner of Chase Center, the state-of-the-art sports and entertainment complex to be built in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, which is planned to open for the start of the 2019-20 NBA season.
Under the agreement, Accenture will collaborate with the Warriors to design and implement an immersive and engaging experience for the guests and fans of the arena, restaurants, retail businesses, offices and plazas that will comprise Chase Center and the surrounding district. Accenture will also work closely with the Warriors to define and create the underlying technical architecture and assemble the ecosystem of partners required to implement the experience design for Chase Center. As part of the effort, the Warriors and Accenture will prototype and test solutions at Oracle Arena for potential use in Chase Center.
“Recognizing and acquiring talent, on and off the court, is a key to winning in the NBA,” said Rick Welts, president and chief operating officer for the Golden State Warriors. “Accenture has the talent, experience and insight to design and implement innovative experiences that will excite our fans, our tenants and the public while defining a new standard for community-centered sports and entertainment facilities. We are pleased to have Accenture join our team as we prepare to break ground.”
Leading up to the opening of Chase Center, the Warriors and Accenture will engage fans and the community in defining the future experience through “Fannovate,” a fan-involvement effort to capture input and ideas, the most promising of which could be incubated and prototyped as part of the Chase Center experience design.
“We are thrilled to partner with the Golden State Warriors – and the community – to establish Chase Center and the surrounding district as a destination for unforgettable moments and a center of innovation in the Bay Area,” said Julie Sweet, Accenture’s group chief executive – North America. “We will work hand-in-hand with the Warriors, as well as Fannovate participants, to define and enable an unparalleled set of experiences.”
To help the Warriors achieve its vision for the new community-centered complex, Accenture will tap its powerful and broad network of capabilities, ranging from deep high-tech and media and entertainment experience to service design from Fjord, Accenture Interactive’s design and innovation unit, and mobility and analytics from Accenture Digital. The partnership will also leverage the Accenture Lab in San Jose and Accenture Liquid Studio in Redwood City, which work with leading and emerging players in the Silicon Valley ecosystem to invent, develop and deliver solutions that help clients like the Warriors engage their audiences in new and innovative ways.
“We want to enable the Golden State Warriors to delight their guests, fans and tenants with connected experiences,” said Mike Sutcliff, group chief executive, Accenture Digital. “To deliver on this goal, we will tap the full range of Accenture’s digital and technology capabilities – from driving insight from data and designing experiences from an outside-in perspective all the way to using proven and emerging technologies to engage with people when and where it really matters.”
“We’re pleased to find in Accenture a partner that perfectly aligns with our culture and our core values to undertake this unique partnership,” said Welts. “And we’re particularly excited to deepen our relationship with residents and fans through the Fannovate program.”
About the Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors organization, currently in its 71st season, is a charter member of the National Basketball Association. Founded in 1946, the Warriors called the city of Philadelphia home for 16 memorable years before moving to the West Coast in 1962 to become the San Francisco Warriors and ultimately, in 1971, the Golden State Warriors when the team moved across the Bay to its current home in Oakland. The team’s storied history includes four NBA Championships, six of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players and 27 members of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. For more information on the Golden State Warriors, please visit warriors.com.
About GSW Arena LLC
GSW Arena LLC, founded in 2010, is privately funding the construction of a new sports and entertainment venue, Chase Center, which will be the anchor of an 11-acre mixed use complex on private property in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood. For more information, please visit warriors.com/sf.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With approximately 384,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.