San Francisco Warriors: Possible Relocation Would Guarantee Financial Success

With the rumors flying about the possible relocation of the Golden State Warriors back to San Francisco, there are serious questions about the financial ramifications.

Rest assured that if the owners of the Warriors are willing to relocate, there is a much larger basis for growth in the San Francisco market than there is in Oakland.

Sorry, Raiders fans.

Team, owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the Golden State franchise for a whopping $450 million (h/t Tim Kawakami), which was much more than what the team was valued. As many have pointed out, that’s a bad investment, unless the plan all along was to move the team to the more financially fruitful San Francisco area.

NBA insider for the San Jose Mercury News, Tim Kawakami, talks about the ownership group for the Warriors and their desire to move the team to San Fran:

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Lacob and Peter Guber haven’t hidden their desire to move to San Francisco from Day 1 of their ownership tenure–which, of course, was heralded by a lunch and press conference on the Embacadero, not too far from the Piers 30-32 site. And if you had any conversation with Guber, specifically, about the ultimate destination of the Warriors, you came away knowing it’d almost certainly not be in Oakland once they could get out of their lease. They can get out of it after the 2016-’17 season.

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When a team talks about relocation, the fans of the current city always point to the storied history the franchise has built there, and they speak of how they can’t leave that all behind. That isn’t the case here.

Since the inception of the team, this has been a franchise without a home.

Starting in Philadelphia in the 1940s, the Warriors made the jump from the East Coast to the West Coast in 1962 and promptly moved throughout the Bay Area. The Warriors have played home games in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and San Diego, just to name a few.

With no clear identity, moving back to San Francisco is the best move for ownership, because it’s the smartest financial move. While Oakland wants a basketball team, the NBA wants franchises that actually make money.

The Warriors will become one of the elite franchises with the financial backing of a major city like San Francisco. Now they just have to hammer out six years worth of time-consuming details—no big deal.

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