Chase Center Feature: General Manager Kim Stone

Chase Center General Manager Kim Stone joined the Golden State Warriors from the Miami Heat organization and American Airlines Arena, where she played a similar role in opening the downtown Miami venue. Stone has been an integral part of the organization and led the opening of Chase Center in September 2019. Stone rose from humble beginnings to become an accomplished and highly-respected executive. Now, Stone will play a pivotal role in leading Chase Center through these unprecedented times.

Stone began her career with the Miami Heat by working part-time on the statistics crew, while also working at the University of Miami sports information department. In 1996, Stone joined the Heat’s Sports Media Relations department. “I happened to be hired one month before Coach Riley was hired so just good timing. I spent the first four years of my career with the Heat traveling with the team and that was quite a crazy time,” Stone added. She spent three years in that area before leading the organization’s efforts to launch the WNBA’s Miami Sol in 1999 as Senior Director of Operations.

While leading the Sol operations, Stone pursued a business degree at the same time at the University of Miami’s executive MBA program. She explained, “I learned a lot so I would go to school on Monday night and come in on Tuesday and be able to implement the strategies, it was fabulous. Very difficult, very hard, but very rewarding.” A change in the organization resulted in the WNBA team folding, Stone became Chief of Staff to Heat President, Business Operations, Eric Woolworth. Stone served in that role from 2002 to 2004, and then ascended to Vice President of Season Ticket Service and Retention from 2004 to 2006.

Stone rose through the ranks of the Miami Heat organization during her, culminating in a promotion to Executive Vice President and General Manager of the American Airlines Arena in 2006. She recalled her conversation with Woolworth when he offered her the job. “When I went to meet with Eric that day that he offered me the job, the first thing I told him was ‘I don’t come with a facilities background.’ To which he said, ‘I’m not hiring you to change lightbulbs, I’m hiring you for your leadership.’ So clearly he saw a lot more in me than I saw in myself.” Stone accumulated numerous accolades during her 13-year tenure as the General Manager of American Airlines Arena. In 2013, Venues Today named her to their “Women of Influence” list and the Sports Business Journal has recognized her talents twice: as a “2016 Game Changer” and in June 2017 as a “Power Player In Venue Management.”

In April 2019, Stone made the transition from Miami to the Bay Area to become the General Manager of Chase Center. She may have been moving across the country, but Stone had roots in San Francisco. Her father lived in the Bay Area while she was in college at UNC-Wilmington so she would come live with him during the summers and take BART to her job on Pier 39. One of the reasons why Stone transferred from UNC-Wilmington to University of North Carolina Chapel Hill when she was a sophomore was motivated by a possible future in San Francisco. “Nobody is going to hire me in San Francisco from UNCW, it was less likely. You knew more about North Carolina, right? So that was my reasoning.” Stone’s journey led her back to San Francisco with a chance to do something special for both her career and the city.

Chase Center gave Stone the rare opportunity to put her imprint on a venue right from the start. “When you’re a facility manager, the opportunity to open a building is like a ‘crown jewel’ that sets you apart from others, it’s just the reality. They don’t come along that often.” Stone completed an impressive professional feat, but she also put some historical context to the achievement. She wanted to do something special for the city of San Francisco and Stone did just that by opening Chase Center. “That was always the vision from Joe and Rick and all of us making it come to be to transform the city and it has.”

Opening Chase Center was a tremendous accomplishment, but for Stone, the real work was just beginning. When asked about what lies ahead, Stone recalled something her counterpart Aran Rush, general manager for the Sacramento Kings, said to her, “Kim you’re like a bulldog who just bit the bumper of a car and you don’t even know that the car took off.” One of the first challenges Stone is facing is incorporating a number of new faces.

The new GM inherited a staff and she was pressed for time to get everybody on the same page. "Usually, most new managers at an executive level get a 30-60-90 day plan. I had a 1 week-2 week-3 week plan, that was it,” Stone added, "It became almost like triaging, all you could do was make sure you were keeping the whole team focused on most important aspects. The best news is we got through it and got rave reviews.” People in the new staff had experience operating events from different venues such as Madison Square Garden, Levi’s Stadium, and Bill Graham Civic Center. The diverse background of the Chase Center operations team was a strength that Stone was happy to tap into. “Those subtle differences make a world of difference so what I used to always do is draw a Venn diagram and I’d say this is American Airlines Arena, here’s Madison Square Garden, here’s the local venues and where all those circles intersect, that’s Chase Center. We have the luxury of taking the best of each of these.” Stone also wants her team to develop and nurture strong bonds so that every member of her staff makes “having each other’s backs” is an essential goal to strive towards.

Looking back on her journey, Stone reflects about how she has evolved professionally. Stone has become more adept at navigating through quick changes and she illustrated this point with her recent trip back to Miami to visit American Airlines Arena. “I walked into the arena and I thought ‘my god, this job is so easy’ to run that building. It’s no disrespect whatsoever, it is a big job. That is a big job. The difference is at a building that’s been set, their processes and procedures are well oiled and very defined. [At Chase Center], we’re still making the sausage. We’re still figuring things out. So I have become very comfortable with change, massive change.”

Stone embraced the whirlwind of Chase Center’s opening and is ready to tackle the challenges of operating a world-class venue. “There’s a pattern in my life that I like to do new, different things and [Chase Center] just continues that pattern.” She makes it clear that success is not only the objective, it is an expectation. “I have a high need for achievement. I need to achieve things. You don’t have to give me any praise, you don’t have to give me money, I just want to achieve and make things happen. That’s who I am.”