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From:bleacherreport
Beyond the improved views, Welts added that moving across the bay could provide the organization with a platform to become a major force in the world of professional sports.
"There comes a point in time where if we're going to be the franchise that we aspire to be, we're going to need a new playing facility," he said, per Shelburne. "And in our view, San Francisco is the right place to be if you have the same aspirations we have, to be truly one of the great franchises in sports."
Market size certainly helps the branding aspect, but nothing would provide a bigger boost than consistent success. This is just the team's third postseason venture since 1994, and it's in danger of being a brief one after Thursday's crushing 98-96 Game 3 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Maybe the Warriors can beat the odds and survive that home-court slipup. History is no longer in their favor, though. As columnist Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News noted, Golden State has advanced in each of its last 12 playoff series when it sweeps its home games, but the Warriors have been eliminated the seven times they've lost on their home floor.
With no real answer on how to stop Clippers All-Star forward Blake Griffin (27.7 points on 61.8 percent shooting in the series), that trend might continue.
Then again, maybe a bit of Oracle magic can save this team. Perhaps Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson can shoot this team out of its hole.
Engineering a comeback would certainly be worthy of an entry into the Golden State Warriors history book. And as this report suggests, that book could be closing soon.
Report: Golden State Warriors Mull Name Change with San Francisco Relocation
The Golden State Warriors could be on the brink of extinction.
The franchise itself isn't in jeopardy, but the organization could undergo a name change according to a report by ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne.
Shelburne states the team "will be seeking input from fans on whether they should change their name" when they make their move across the bay to San Francisco in the coming years. The Dubs recently announced an agreement to purchase 12 acres of land in the city's Mission Bay neighborhood for a new sports and entertainment center, per Warriors.com.
The Warriors team name will survive the transition, for now, but the organization is considering going back to being the San Francisco Warriors—the name it played under from 1962-71.
"We're very curious what our fans think of that," Warriors president and CEO Rick Welts told Shelburne. "I couldn't imagine making that decision in the very near future, but we definitely want to see what our fans prefer."
Co-owner Joe Lacob told Comcast SportsNet's Monte Poole the plan is to have the new arena ready for the 2018-19 season.
Golden State's current digs, Oakland's Oracle Arena, have developed a reputation as one of the more raucous environments in the NBA. Now that the patient fanbase has been rewarded with back-to-back playoff trips for the first time since 1992, it's grown even more frenzied.
Welts said he hopes the new arena will capture that same magic, telling Shelburne:
"We're spending a lot of time with the facility itself to do everything possible to replicate what we think is a really special atmosphere for our games at Oracle. The first assignment we gave the architects was to make sure that every seat in the new building is as close or closer than the comparable seat at Oracle. We're doing that by actually making the building smaller."
Beyond the improved views, Welts added that moving across the bay could provide the organization with a platform to become a major force in the world of professional sports.
"There comes a point in time where if we're going to be the franchise that we aspire to be, we're going to need a new playing facility," he said, per Shelburne. "And in our view, San Francisco is the right place to be if you have the same aspirations we have, to be truly one of the great franchises in sports."
Market size certainly helps the branding aspect, but nothing would provide a bigger boost than consistent success. This is just the team's third postseason venture since 1994, and it's in danger of being a brief one after Thursday's crushing 98-96 Game 3 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Maybe the Warriors can beat the odds and survive that home-court slipup. History is no longer in their favor, though. As columnist Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News noted, Golden State has advanced in each of its last 12 playoff series when it sweeps its home games, but the Warriors have been eliminated the seven times they've lost on their home floor.
With no real answer on how to stop Clippers All-Star forward Blake Griffin (27.7 points on 61.8 percent shooting in the series), that trend might continue.
Then again, maybe a bit of Oracle magic can save this team. Perhaps Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson can shoot this team out of its hole.
Engineering a comeback would certainly be worthy of an entry into the Golden State Warriors history book. And as this report suggests, that book could be closing soon.
