Daly City sits about seven miles south of Chase Center — a straight shot up I-280 that Google will tell you takes eight minutes. On a weeknight before a 7:00 tip-off, it doesn't take eight minutes, and even if it did, the real problem starts once you get off the freeway. Chase Center's own transportation guidance is blunt about it: on-site parking is "very limited," and the arena steers everyone toward Muni, the ferry, or a curb — not a lot.
So before your group leaves Daly City, the one question worth answering is where a bus actually goes once it reaches Mission Bay, because that's the difference between your group walking in together and your group hunting for parking spots in three different garages.
Chase Center's own curb map marks a stop labeled "Charter Buses and Private Shuttles" along Terry A. Francois Boulevard, separate from the general rideshare loading zone and separate from the taxi stand. That's where your group gets dropped, and it's the detail most first-timers never find until they're already circling the block. Below is what that drop actually looks like, what parking costs if part of your group is driving separately, what the I-280 approach from Daly City looks like on a game night, and how to size the right vehicle for your group.
Why a Daly City Charter Bus or Party Bus Rental Beats Driving to Chase Center
Chase Center wasn't built with parking lots the way most arenas are — it was built as a transit hub, wedged onto a Mission Bay block between Third Street, 16th Street, Terry A. Francois Boulevard, and Warriors Way. Chase Center's own FAQ tells patrons flatly to plan around that: on-site parking is "very limited," and there's only "a limited amount of off-site parking" within about a half mile, all of which needs to be reserved ahead of time. Splitting a group of 15 or 20 people into five or six separate cars means five or six separate reservations, five or six separate walks from wherever a spot opened up, and five or six chances someone gets stuck on I-280 alone.
A Daly City charter bus rental or a Daly City party bus rental collapses all of that into one pickup and one drop. Your group boards once — at a house in Daly City, a hotel, or a stop at SFO — and gets off once, at the curb the venue actually assigns to charter buses. Nobody drives home after the fourth quarter, nobody pays for parking they can't find, and nobody in your group is the one stuck circling Illinois Street looking for an open spot.
Charter Bus & Party Bus Drop-Off at Chase Center
Chase Center's block has four named entrances, and which one your group uses depends on how you're arriving. The West Plaza faces Third Street and Warriors Way and connects straight to the Muni T Third platform. The East Plaza faces 16th and Illinois streets, where the Muni shuttle stop and bike valet sit.
The Esplanade, on the Terry A. Francois Boulevard side, only opens for large events, and it's also where the arena tells guests to go for a ferry connection. Terry A. Francois Boulevard itself is the busiest curb on the block — it's where paratransit, taxis, and the priority-curb and ride-hail loading zones all sit, running along both the north- and south-bound sides in front of the building.
Chase Center's Curb Map: Where Charter Buses Actually Load
Chase Center's published Event Transportation Guide includes a curb map with its own icon for "Charter Buses and Private Shuttles," set apart from the general ride-hail zone and grouped near the Mission Bay TMA shuttle stop and the paratransit pickup on the Terry A. Francois Boulevard side of the block. That's a meaningful distinction: the guide states plainly that there is "no ride hail pickups on 16th Street, 3rd Streets, or Warriors Way" — those streets are reserved for transit, taxis, and the charter zone. A private bus isn't competing with rideshare traffic for the same curb; it has its own.
Chase Center's own curb map sets aside a stop for charter buses and private shuttles — a different location than the general rideshare zone, and one most groups who show up on their own never find. It sits along Terry A. Francois Boulevard, in the same curbside cluster as the paratransit pickup and the Mission Bay TMA shuttle stop.
Curb assignments at any arena can shift for a sellout or a nationally televised game, so the exact spot is worth a look close to your date on Chase Center's own transportation guide page. What doesn't change is the layout: your group loads and unloads curbside on Terry A. Francois Boulevard, not in a remote lot, and walks straight into the East Plaza or Esplanade entrance from there.
Parking Near Chase Center When Part of Your Group Drives Separately
If a few people are meeting your bus group on-site instead of riding along, Chase Center's own visitor guidance names four off-site options within roughly three-quarters of a mile: Lot C at 1144 Third Street, the garage at 1800 Owens Street, Lot 118 at 901 Illinois Street, and a smaller ADA lot at 150 Warriors Way with limited availability. Lot A, closer to the arena, is currently closed. All of them need to be reserved ahead of time through the Warriors + Chase Center app or chasecenter.com — nothing is sold at the gate on a walk-up basis.
On top of the garages, San Francisco flips its on-street meter rate for any Chase Center event drawing 10,000 or more people, charging a flat $8 an hour at curbside spots near the arena, according to SFMTA's Chase Center transit page. Multiply that across a four-hour Warriors night for six or seven cars and it adds up fast — a single bus is one reservation instead of that whole spreadsheet.
The Drive from Daly City to Chase Center on I-280
The most direct route from Daly City is I-280 North into San Francisco to the Mariposa Street exit, then east to Third Street and north to 16th Street and the arena — or continuing past Mariposa to where I-280 ends near King Street and cutting over on Third. Off-peak, that's an eight-minute, seven-mile run. On a weeknight before a 7:00 tip-off, it's a different trip: I-280 backs up approaching the King Street off-ramps, and Third Street through Mission Bay slows to a crawl as it feeds the same block everyone else is trying to reach.
SFMTA enforces street closures around the arena beginning two hours before an event and lasting until about an hour after it ends, which narrows the window for a private vehicle to even approach the curb. A bus built for this trip skips the guesswork on timing — your group's departure from Daly City gets planned around that closure window instead of discovered by sitting in it.
Chase Center Party Bus Rental Prices from Daly City
Dalycityminibuscompany.com shows quotes online in under a minute, and pricing for a Chase Center run comes down to a few clear factors: how many people are riding, which vehicle fits that headcount, how many hours you need the bus on the schedule (including the wait between drop-off and pickup), and how close your date sits to a sellout or a big concert on-sale.
A Sample Chase Center Group Trip
To give you an idea of how that math works: a 22-person group leaving a Daly City home for a Tuesday-night Warriors game on a 25-passenger minibus, picked up at 5:30 p.m. and returned to Daly City by 10:30 p.m., might run somewhere in the neighborhood of $950 to $1,150 for the five hours — roughly $43 to $52 a person, parking and the per-car meter rate already built into that one number instead of split across six separate cars. Pricing shifts with the date, the vehicle, and demand, so the fastest way to see a number for your actual trip is to fill out the quick quote form or call 650-984-9070.
What Size Bus Rental Fits Your Chase Center Group
Chase Center groups run small and large — a family taking in a Valkyries game is a different booking than a company renting suites for a client night. An 18-passenger Sprinter van from Daly City covers a tight group headed to a courtside or suite level without paying for seats nobody needs. A 20-passenger minibus rental or a 30-passenger minibus rental is the workhorse size for most Warriors game groups, birthday outings, and concert groups splitting the cost across a full row of friends.
For a company event, a school alumni night, or a bigger concert crowd, a 35-passenger minibus or a full-size charter bus keeps everyone on one vehicle instead of two. Groups wanting the built-in bar and sound system for a pregame ride can go with a Daly City party bus rental instead. The full lineup, including 25- and 28-passenger sizes, is on the vehicle page.
Chase Center Transportation Options Compared
Dalycityminibuscompany.com is built around comparing bus rentals, but a private bus isn't the only way to reach Chase Center, and it's not automatically the right call for two people going to one game. Here's an honest rundown of what the arena itself points patrons toward.
The Chase Center Ferry from Pier 48
San Francisco Bay Ferry runs dedicated service to a temporary dock at Pier 48, about a half mile north of the arena off Terry A. Francois Boulevard — roughly a 15-minute walk each way. For a normal 7:00 tip-off, boats leave Main Street Alameda around 5:25 p.m. and Oakland around 5:45 p.m., with the return trip departing Pier 48 about 30 minutes after the final buzzer and no later than 11:30 p.m. Fares run $11.25 for adults and $8.50 for youth, seniors, and riders with disabilities, and tickets have to be bought in advance through the Chase Center Ferry Service page — Clipper cards aren't accepted on this run.
It's a genuinely pleasant option for two or three people coming from the East Bay. It doesn't do much for a group of twenty trying to stay together, and it doesn't serve Daly City at all.
Muni's T Third Line and the 78X Arena Express
Chase Center has its own Muni Metro platform at the corner of Third and 16th, and every event ticket doubles as a same-day Muni pass. The T Third line runs at increased frequency on game nights, and the 78X 16th Street Arena Express connects to 16th Street/Mission BART, running from about two and a half hours before an event until roughly half an hour after it ends, per SFMTA's Chase Center page. From Daly City, that means BART north to 16th Street/Mission, then the 78X the rest of the way — workable for a couple of riders, a genuine headache for coordinating a group of ten who need to stay together through a transfer and a packed post-game platform.
A private bus is the one option on this list that never asks your group to transfer, stand on a crowded platform, or split up because someone missed the shuttle. It's also the only one that starts at your actual pickup point in Daly City instead of a BART station.
Leaving Chase Center After a Warriors Game or Concert
Getting out is where the arena's own design works against a transportation provider and for a bus. When 18,000-plus people leave at once, Terry A. Francois Boulevard and the surrounding curbs fill immediately, and SFMTA's posted closure window — two hours before an event through about an hour after — is built around exactly that crunch. Chase Center's own guidance to departing patrons is to head for the West Plaza on Third Street and Warriors Way, calling it the fastest way out of the immediate area toward the T Third platform.
A bus staged for your group skips that scramble. Instead of hunting for a rideshare in a surge-priced crowd of thousands or walking to a BART platform packed with the same 18,000 people, your group has one pickup point and one vehicle waiting on it. You agree on that pickup window before the doors even open, so there's no group text trying to find each other in the dark on Illinois Street after the final horn.
Chase Center's 2026 Event Calendar and When to Book
Chase Center runs on two overlapping calendars — the Golden State Warriors' NBA season and the Golden State Valkyries' WNBA season — plus a steady concert lineup booked through Live Nation. The Warriors' 2026-27 preseason opens at Chase Center on October 6 against the Lakers, followed by home dates against the Kings on October 10 and the Trail Blazers on October 16, with the regular season following close behind and running into the spring. The Valkyries play their WNBA home slate in the arena from May into September.
On the concert side, Chase Center's Live Nation event calendar already lists a run of large shows for late 2026, including Weezer on September 9, Doja Cat's Tour Ma Vie stop on October 19, Phoebe Bridgers over October 27–28, and Journey's Final Frontier Tour on November 28. Any of those dates draws the same crowd crunch as a big Warriors night, and vehicle availability for that week tightens the moment tickets go on sale — booking as soon as your date is on the calendar beats waiting until the week of the show.
Bag Policy and Other Chase Center Rules to Know Before You Go
A few rules from Chase Center's own visitor guidance are worth passing along to your group before you leave Daly City. Backpacks of any size are not allowed inside, and no bag larger than 14 inches by 6 inches by 14 inches gets past the gate — bag check is available outside on Warriors Way for anything over the limit. Doors typically open at 5:30 p.m. for weeknight games and 4:00 p.m. on weekends, ahead of a 7:00 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. tip-off, so building an early arrival into your pickup time leaves room to visit Thrive City, the plaza outside the arena, before doors.
Frequently Asked Questions About Chase Center Bus Rentals
Where does a charter bus or party bus actually drop off at Chase Center?
Chase Center's own curb map sets aside a stop for "Charter Buses and Private Shuttles" along Terry A. Francois Boulevard, separate from the general rideshare zone and grouped with the paratransit and Mission Bay TMA shuttle stops. It's a short walk from there to the East Plaza or Esplanade entrance. Since curb assignments can shift for sellout dates, it's worth a quick check of Chase Center's transportation guide close to your event.
Can rideshare pick up right at the arena doors?
Not on every street. Chase Center's guidance is specific that there's no ride-hail pickup allowed on 16th Street, Third Street, or Warriors Way — rideshare loads only along Terry A. Francois Boulevard, at a zone riders select through their app.
How much does it cost to rent a bus to Chase Center from Daly City?
Pricing depends on group size, vehicle, total hours, and how close your date sits to a big game or concert. A quote takes about a minute online, or call 650-984-9070 for a free price check with no obligation. See the Daly City bus rental prices page for more on how quotes are built.
What size bus fits my group?
An 18-passenger Sprinter van suits a small suite or courtside group; a 20- to 30-passenger minibus is the common size for a Warriors game group or birthday outing; a 35-passenger minibus or full charter bus covers a company event or a large concert crowd. The full lineup is on the vehicle page.
Where do I park if a few people in my group are driving separately?
Chase Center's own guidance names Lot C (1144 Third Street), the garage at 1800 Owens Street, Lot 118 (901 Illinois Street), and a limited ADA lot at 150 Warriors Way, all reserved in advance through the Warriors + Chase Center app or chasecenter.com. Lot A is currently closed. Nearby street meters flip to an $8-an-hour event rate for any Chase Center event drawing 10,000 or more people.
What's the fastest way out of Chase Center after the game?
Chase Center itself points departing patrons toward the West Plaza, on Third Street and Warriors Way, calling it the quickest way out of the immediate area via the T Third Muni platform. A bus staged with a pre-agreed pickup window skips that crowd entirely instead of merging into it.
Is there a ferry to Chase Center?
Yes — San Francisco Bay Ferry runs a dedicated route from Alameda and Oakland to the temporary Pier 48 dock, about a half mile and a 15-minute walk from the arena, with fares of $11.25 for adults and $8.50 for youth, seniors, and riders with disabilities. Tickets must be bought ahead through the official ferry service page; Clipper cards aren't accepted. The route doesn't originate anywhere near Daly City, so it mainly helps riders coming from the East Bay.
What roads close around Chase Center on event days?
SFMTA enforces street closures around the arena beginning two hours before an event and continuing for about an hour after it ends, which is exactly when I-280 and Third Street through Mission Bay see the heaviest backup coming from Daly City.
What's the bag policy at Chase Center?
Backpacks of any size are prohibited, and any bag larger than 14 inches by 6 inches by 14 inches won't pass the gate. Bag check is available outside on Warriors Way for oversized bags.
How far in advance should I book a bus for a Warriors game or concert?
As soon as your date is set. Concert on-sale weeks and Warriors playoff dates — which the league often confirms only days ahead — both tighten vehicle availability fast, so booking early beats waiting for the week of the show.
Can Dalycityminibuscompany.com pick my group up from SFO or from home in Daly City before heading to Chase Center?
Yes — Daly City sits just minutes from San Francisco International Airport, and a bus can gather your group at baggage claim, a Daly City hotel, or a private home before making the run up I-280 to the arena. See the Daly City airport transportation page for how that pickup works.
Book Your Chase Center Charter Bus or Party Bus Today
Whether it's a Warriors game, a Valkyries night, or a concert on Chase Center's fall calendar, the trip up I-280 from Daly City is easiest solved before you ever leave the driveway. Dalycityminibuscompany.com compares vehicles and rates from a large network of bus companies serving Daly City, so your group can see pricing for a Sprinter van, minibus, party bus, or full charter bus side by side in under a minute. Also planning a trip to the Cow Palace or a game at Oracle Park? Those guides cover their own drop-offs.
For your Chase Center date, check the Daly City sporting event transportation or Daly City concert transportation pages for more on booking group rides for game nights and shows, or the Daly City corporate transportation page for a suite-night client group. Fill out the online form or call 650-984-9070 to get a price quote for your trip.
