The Warriors are saying goodbye to Oracle Arena

The sound builds before hitting your eardrums like nails on a chalkboard.

But as the BART train pulls up to Coliseum station, that shrill, screeching sound of the rails is replaced by the excited chattering of fans spilling out from behind the train’s sliding doors on their way to Oracle Arena.

When this season is over, fans will have to find a different route to watch the Golden State Warriors, as the team will move to the new $1 billion Chase Center across the bay in San Francisco after playing 47 years in Oakland at Oracle. With the NBA Finals underway, fans will have, at most, two more games to support the Warriors as they have for the better part of the last half-century.

In Toronto, Raptors fans took on outsized importance. In the first two games of the Finals, they made a name for themselves by exceeding previously-set decibel levels at Scotiabank Arena, while thousands more stood outside in tailgate locations called “Jurassic Park.” The spotlight is relatively new to Toronto fans, but very much regular in Oakland where fans inspired the venue’s unofficial nickname “Roaracle.”

“A lot of my favorite memories come from being a player here and marveling at the energy in this building, coming from a crowd that did not have a whole lot to cheer for, frankly,” said head coach Steve Kerr. “The Warriors went through a long dry spell, and yet you would come here and there was an atmosphere, an energy you could feel.”

Where you exit the station is where the smell finds you: sausages and onions sizzling on a greasy griddle top. A new sound pings: hawkers selling novelty T-shirts and caps, others with beer and water out of an Igloo cooler. Then there’s music coming from every direction as you walk onto the plot of land on which Oracle Arena squats.

Oracle is situated just off I-880 and 66th Avenue. Around it are warehouses, a truck stop and scrap metal heaps. For something to eat, there’s a Denny’s about a mile away. Houses are across a freeway, four lanes of traffic and several blocks down. Where else in this part of California do you have to walk a mile to find a trendy restaurant, let alone a chain diner or the nearest apartment? Despite the 47,000-seat Oakland Coliseum next door infringing on its personal space, Oracle seems to exist on a satellite planet outside the Silicon Valley bubble that has engulfed the Bay Area. To get there, you get in a BART train and blast off.

But then on game day, the bustle comes to Oracle. While tailgating is far more common on NFL Sundays than in the NBA, it’s a regular past time before Warriors games. Fans fill the parking lot hours before tipoff, setting up chairs, tents, grills, games and music. There’s often a DJ independently set up in the median between Oracle’s parking lot and the Coliseum’s.

There’s no name for any of it. No branded content or official this or that. It’s just one of the few remaining wide-open plots of land serving as space for Warriors fans to congregate and celebrate.

After this season, the Warriors won’t have this. They’ll move to San Francisco, where the organization has already named the surrounding district “Thrive City.” It’s a clean, brand-friendly block of shops and restaurants stacked on top of each other and raising prices. The new arena will be beautiful, chic, and befitting of a team that won three championships in four years. What it won’t be is grassroots. A shuttle between the nearest BART station and arena will replace the walk of grilled meats and knock-off Warriors gear.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors voted in April to approve new parking restrictions around the Chase Center, with an emphasis on encouraging public transit to the venue. “If you need to get to Mission Bay on game (or event) days, plan ahead, allow extra time and consider walking, biking, or taking Muni [the city train system],” says the organization’s website.

The SFMTA estimates the shuttles could add anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes of travel — eating up into valuable pregame time — and with parking set to be both costly and scarce, coolers of beer will be replaced by happy hour prices at crowded bars.

In Toronto, Scotiabank Arena is located in the heart of Downtown — many NBA arenas are. Attending a game at Oracle almost felt more like a college football game than it did a basketball game. That kind of atmosphere must have contributed to Oracle’s roar.

Forty-plus years ago, Warriors fans set the bar for fan support. Next season, they could learn from those of their NBA Finals opponent and bring that roar to “Thrive City.” Raptors fans showed it can be done.

“It’s something that jumps out to me about this Finals. You’re dealing with two areas, cities, general areas, that are just basketball crazy, and you can feel it inside and out of the building, around town. And so it’s been just an incredible experience to play and coach at Oracle, and hopefully we can go out in style and win our last games here,” Kerr said.

“But we’re going to miss it here for sure. We’re looking forward to the new arena, it’s going to be amazing, but we’ll always miss Oracle.”