Golden State Warriors Consider Name Change after Land Purchase

NBA franchise Golden State Warriors have revealed they are contemplating changing the name of the team after announcing earlier this week they’d purchased a 12-acre property in the Mission Bay district of San Francisco that they plan to use for a new arena.

The franchise will keep the Warriors moniker they’ve used since they were founded in Philadelphia in 1946 but could readopt the name for which they were known when they played in San Francisco from 1962-71 — the San Francisco Warriors.

“We’re very curious what our fans think of that,” Warriors president and CEO Rick Welts told ESPN.com. “I couldn’t imagine making that decision in the very near future, but we definitely want to see what our fans prefer.”

“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,” Welts said.

“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. We’re going from 19,000 seats to 18,000 seats.”

Welts said that the Warriors have also guaranteed that every employee at Oracle will have a chance to transfer their job to the new building, which is eight miles away, across the San Francisco Bay. They’ve guaranteed seats to their season-ticket holders in the new arena.

“Oracle Arena is the oldest arena in the NBA, and it’s served great for 50 years,” Welts said. “But 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. 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.”

Welts said he didn’t think the franchise’s fans in the East Bay would abandon them, since the new site is so close to Oakland, and accessible by the Bay Area’s Rapid Transit (BART) system.

Welts added pushing to keep the team in Oakland was further complicated by governmental concerns.

“I think we’re very cognizant also that Oakland and Alameda counties have some very serious issues to prioritize,” Welts said. “And we’re very understanding that the Golden State Warriors, in terms of an investment of public money, isn’t one of the places that those in charge of the future of Oakland feel like is the most needy in terms of the issues and problems that the people are trying to address here.”