Programming note: Watch the Warriors take on the Heat at 4:30 p.m. PT on Wednesday, streaming live on the MyTeams app.
The Warriors will officially move into their new home later this calendar year.
Chase Center is slated to host its first event in September, with the Warriors playing their first exhibition game in the state-of-the-art arena in October.
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SIGN UP HERE And to think that the project might not have become a reality if it weren't for...
...the San Francisco 49ers. Really?
Really.
Ethan Strauss of The Athletic has the details:
Golden State Warriors
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San Francisco might be flush with cash, but not infinitely so. While a fan might root for every sports team in a given region, said sports teams don’t necessarily root for one another. Often the greatest threat to your franchise’s money and relevance comes from another team in the same city, winning and cashing in, in a different sport.
On the other hand, the Warriors greatest ally in this venture, beyond Mayor Lee, might have been the 49ers.
“Maybe the greatest help we had in doing this project was the 49ers,” Welts says. “It was advice from ownership to people in sales. They were without question the single most valuable resource we had. They were incredibly generous.”
The 49ers no longer play in San Francisco.
They moved from Candlestick Park to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara after the 2013 season. And as Strauss writes:
The football franchise could freely help the Warriors, schooling the less weathered ownership group in the pratfalls of city politics and stadium building. In this way, the 49ers were something between a sherpa and a minefield clearer. In the end, one franchise’s experience saved the other incalculable but almost certainly significant amounts of time and money.
[RELATED: 49ers consulted Warriors before deciding to restructure training staff]
So the 49ers helped the Warriors with off-the-court matters.
Perhaps the Warriors can return the favor by teaching the 49ers a thing or two about winning on the field (sorry, but I had to do it.)