Chase Center, SFMTA celebrating Bruce Springsteen shows with commemorative street signs
Bruce Springsteen SFMTA signs near Chase Center in San Francisco.
Chase Center and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency have teamed up to install special street signs around the venue to celebrate two Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concerts this week.
The signs were installed on Warriors Way and in Thrive City, and were unveiled Wednesday afternoon in a brief ceremony. Springsteen plays Chase Center on Thursday and Sunday.
“We worked with the mayor’s office and SFMTA, and pitched the idea. And they were very responsive,” said Sheena Way, Chase Center vice president of programming. Within a couple of weeks we went through the size, the colors.”
Way said the signs are the latest in a series of welcoming gifts for artists performing at Chase Center, including custom-made made sneakers for Karol G that included a hand-painted box with her family and Colombian flag painted on it during her recent stop in San Francisco, a WWE figure for Bad Bunny (who’s a big wrestling fan), a custom Dickies jacket with tour art stitched on for Mexican artist Santa Fe Klan, Fendi sneakers for shoe-lover Roger Waters and a Warriors jersey for pop artist P!nk, all in pink and covered with Swarovski crystals. Bruce Springsteen’s team will get the street signs to take home.
“It’s common for venue staff to buy gifts for their artists at this level, but what the Chase Center team tries to do is to personalize their gifts,” she said. “We like to make it very unique and meaningful. We think a lot about the artist and what matters to them, and and try to create something special for them and their tour specifically.”
Way, who self-identified as a diehard Bruce Springsteen fan, said she came up with the idea for the street signs.
“I’m like, ‘We should change Warriors Way to E Street,” she said. Way said she’s already traveled to see several other shows on Springsteen’s current Only the Strong Survive Tour, and has followed him for years.
“The show is three hours and while the band takes a break, Bruce doesn’t. He just goes into a solo set for half a dozen songs, and then the band comes back,” she said. “So be prepared to be on your feet, be hydrated and fed because you’re gonna use a lot of energy belting out all the tunes all night long.”
What makes the street sign gift different is that fans can also see it and snap photos before the concerts this week.In addition to Warriors Way, there will be a sign in Thrive City outside of the arena, set up for photo ops.
These will be Springsteen’s first shows in the Bay Area since 2016.
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