Warriors Donate $1M to Disaster Relief Fund for Chase Center Employees

The Golden State Warriors have announced a plan to help take care of Chase Center employees amid the suspension of the NBA season due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Players, coaches and ownership have donated a total of $1 million to establish a disaster relief fund. It will benefit the more than 1,000 part-time employees who work each game. Golden State had seven home games remaining prior to the league hiatus. 

"The men and women who work our games at Chase Center are critical in providing an incredible game-night experience for our fans," Warriors guard Stephen Curry said in the release. "... As players, we wanted to do something along with our ownership and coaches to help ease the pain during this time."

"The last few days have been extremely challenging for all Bay Area citizens as we deal with the hourly changes in this unprecedented situation," Warriors owner Joe Lacob said. "Our players, coaches, ownership and management have been focused on creating a way to assists our part time employees."

A number of NBA players and team owners have committed to providing aid to their stadium workers.

Among them are Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who told reporters he was creating a plan to financially support hourly workers, and Atlanta Hawks owner Tony Ressler, per Sarah K. Spencer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Portland Trail Blazers are "formulating [a] plan to pay their part-time arena employees for the nine home games canceled by the NBA," according to Jason Quick of The Athletic. And Washington Wizards governor Ted Leonsis will pay part-time employees for all 16 events canceled at Capital One Arena, according to Mark Segraves of NBC 4 Washington.  

Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love committed $100,000 to part-time employees at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, while Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo announced he would do the same for workers at Fiserv Forum. Detroit's Blake Griffin pledged the same amount to the employees at Little Caesars Arena.

Meanwhile, New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson announced he would cover the salaries for all of the employees at Smoothie King Center for the next 30 days. 

There have been 2,033 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States and 47 deaths, according to CNN. There have been at least 132,000 cases worldwide and 5,000 deaths as a result of the virus.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told NBA on TNT the league will remain shut down for at least 30 days before it reassesses the situation to see if it can continue the season.