Warriors Announce Plans for 50 Percent Fan Capacity at Home Games
Golden State Warriors governor Joe Lacob announced Friday the team submitted a proposal to allow 50 percent fan capacity at the Chase Center during the 2020-21 NBA season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Lacob told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne the organization is prepared to spend $30 million on COVID-19 testing, and he hopes its approach can set the standard across the sports and entertainment world:
"I not only want to get this done and show the world how we can do it now, I'm willing to spend the money to do it. This is a serious, serious problem. It cannot go on for multiple years ... because if this were to go on for several years, the NBA is no more.
"You cannot sustain this league with no fans. You can do it for a year. We'll all get by for a year. But suppose we're in this situation next year. Now we're talking some serious, serious financial damage to a lot of people."
The Warriors' plan is based on the availability and use of rapid PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, which can produce results within 15 minutes and have been used by studios in Hollywood to resume production, per Shelburne.
It's a quicker testing method than what the NBA used inside its bubble at the Disney World complex in Orlando, Florida. Those results usually didn't return until the following day.
Along with testing everybody who enters the arena, the Warriors are also going to strictly enforce mask and social-distancing rules on game days.
Although California hasn't cleared any sports teams to allow fans in attendance since the initial pandemic shutdown in March, Lacob told Shelburne he's going to lobby public officials at both the local level in San Francisco and the state level to let them show it's possible to handle the situation safely:
"Let us prove the concept. Let us use our money, our resources, our seven-eight months of work, our expertise to prove the concept. That's what I'm trying to get the state, the city and the government to entertain. ...
"By springtime, the rapid PCR tests will be manufactured in amounts nearing 100,000 per day by some of these companies. But I'm trying to show the world, trying to show the sports world in particular, and California, a way to do this. A safe way to have people come to an event and be totally safe walking in that building. The numbers bear it out."
The NBA and the Players Association reached an agreement Monday to amend the collective bargaining agreement to allow a 72-game season to tip off Dec. 22.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the deal included financial adjustments, including a flat salary cap and luxury tax for the 2020-21 campaign, related to the drop in basketball-related income (BRI) because of the absence of fans to finish last season.
Lacob explained to Shelburne he doesn't want the Warriors' push for a return of spectators as a money grab. The 64-year-old, who has a master's degree in public health, wants to show it's possible to make events of all kinds happen again so that people can get back to work:
"I want people to understand this is not the Warriors just trying to make more money. Yes, we're trying to get fans and get revenue, but I'm trying to set a standard. I'm trying to show the world how this can be done, safely.
"There are many, many thousands and thousands of people in the sports, entertainment businesses, not just basketball, that are out of work. They cannot put food on the table. They cannot provide for their kids. Their kids aren't in school. They've got to take care of them. What are they going to do about child care?"
The Warriors opened Chase Center in September 2019 and played just 34 games in their new venue before the shutdown.
