TRON wrote:Time to pay for that booing. Hate to say it but i told you so.

32 wrote:First off, thank you for posting that clip. Indeed, this Warrior fan found the entirety of the program to be interesting and I hope East Bay fans (specifically, Oakland locals) will engage in discussion about this.

Unfortunately, as a proponent of the other side, I disagree with the premise of this video. Sort of strikes me as a camcorder bomb on a day where clearly everyone interrogated was caught off guard and unprepared to answer these - contextually speaking - unrelated questions.

With all due respect to Mr. Ignacio De La Fuente, everyone else in this video seemed confused and unimpressed with the accusations that Warriors ownership will have an additional $150 million of debt to pay to the city of Oakland. In fact, Mr. Lacob, Commisioner Stern, and Mayor Lee all obviously took offense to the idea that the Warriors would financially back door the city of Oakland en route to an exodus to San Francisco.

In my humble opinion, Oakland (and East Bay fans in general) are making way too big a deal about this. The Warriors aren't disowning their fans in Oakland; they're simply upgrading their venue to a state of the art facility; quite frankly, something Oakland has been solidly behind with the stipulation that the arena is built in their backyard. But at the end of the day, let's not forget: this is the "Golden State" Warriors; not the "Oakland" Warriors (or the "San Francisco" Warriors, to that effect).

For the past 40 years, Oakland has been the custodian of the Bay Area's basketball team. In doing so, it seems by the reaction of the locals this past week, they took unrightful ownership of a team that - plainly speaking - did not belong to them in the first place; it belonged to all of us in the Bay.

Returning to my previous point about Oakland overreacting; really, whats being pined over here (besides an abstract suggestion of economic uptick that the Warriors NEVER provided, save for the employees of the Oracle Arena for 41 games a year) is a measly commute and a few digs at the "wine and cheese" demographic in San Francisco not being as rowdy as the "common, blue collar folk" in Oakland.

Are you kidding me?

For the past 20 years, my family has held season tickets in Oakland. We hail from San Jose. In fact, I'd wager the vast majority of folks that we sat with and watched games side by side amongst have admitted to being from the West Bay. If location is an advantage, what does it tell you that East Bay fans only comprised around 50% of the arena crowd WHILE IT WAS LOCATED IN THE EAST BAY? At least half of the revenue being garnered by these home games was being shelled out by the very crowd this new stadium caters to, but now that ownership rewards us with a more convenient commute in a more relevant (and representative) area of the Bay, Oakland locals are calling foul play? Shame on you people. This isn't a move to New Orleans or Memphis or OKC; it's a short hop acrossed the territory. To act as though you are being robbed of something is spoiled and petty.

And regarding the point about the loss of East Bay fans in the shuffle of arenas... If polling and statistics tell us anything, then the only thing that'll be in trouble is Club 200. The rowdy, electric, breathing backdrop in the lower bowl will live on; as it does in the Shark Tank, as it does in Candlestick, as it does in AT&T Park. While the Black Hole is unique in its own way, it doesn't sell out the Coliseum. Go ask the A's and the Raiders how much better their crowds are than their San Francisco counterparts. Again, blind, factually void claims being trumpeted out of the East Bay. How, exactly, do you people see yourselves as better fans than the rest of us?

The truth is, Oakland needs to address the reason as to why sports teams are looking elsewhere in the first place. Like it or not, the Warriors are giving you people the ultimate "it's-not-you, it's-me" treatment right now. You can either cry in your bedroom for 3 weeks eating tubs of ice cream or you can hit the gym and show your ex why she was wrong to leave you in the first place.

But this frantic squealing of "it's not fair!"... Really, it just makes the East Bay look bad.

32 wrote:I posted this in the other moving thread, but this one seems to be gathering more speed so here's my two cents:

32 wrote:First off, thank you for posting that clip. Indeed, this Warrior fan found the entirety of the program to be interesting and I hope East Bay fans (specifically, Oakland locals) will engage in discussion about this.

Unfortunately, as a proponent of the other side, I disagree with the premise of this video. Sort of strikes me as a camcorder bomb on a day where clearly everyone interrogated was caught off guard and unprepared to answer these - contextually speaking - unrelated questions.

With all due respect to Mr. Ignacio De La Fuente, everyone else in this video seemed confused and unimpressed with the accusations that Warriors ownership will have an additional $150 million of debt to pay to the city of Oakland. In fact, Mr. Lacob, Commisioner Stern, and Mayor Lee all obviously took offense to the idea that the Warriors would financially back door the city of Oakland en route to an exodus to San Francisco.

In my humble opinion, Oakland (and East Bay fans in general) are making way too big a deal about this. The Warriors aren't disowning their fans in Oakland; they're simply upgrading their venue to a state of the art facility; quite frankly, something Oakland has been solidly behind with the stipulation that the arena is built in their backyard. But at the end of the day, let's not forget: this is the "Golden State" Warriors; not the "Oakland" Warriors (or the "San Francisco" Warriors, to that effect).

For the past 40 years, Oakland has been the custodian of the Bay Area's basketball team. In doing so, it seems by the reaction of the locals this past week, they took unrightful ownership of a team that - plainly speaking - did not belong to them in the first place; it belonged to all of us in the Bay.

Returning to my previous point about Oakland overreacting; really, whats being pined over here (besides an abstract suggestion of economic uptick that the Warriors NEVER provided, save for the employees of the Oracle Arena for 41 games a year) is a measly commute and a few digs at the "wine and cheese" demographic in San Francisco not being as rowdy as the "common, blue collar folk" in Oakland.

Are you kidding me?

For the past 20 years, my family has held season tickets in Oakland. We hail from San Jose. In fact, I'd wager the vast majority of folks that we sat with and watched games side by side amongst have admitted to being from the West Bay. If location is an advantage, what does it tell you that East Bay fans only comprised around 50% of the arena crowd WHILE IT WAS LOCATED IN THE EAST BAY? At least half of the revenue being garnered by these home games was being shelled out by the very crowd this new stadium caters to, but now that ownership rewards us with a more convenient commute in a more relevant (and representative) area of the Bay, Oakland locals are calling foul play? Shame on you people. This isn't a move to New Orleans or Memphis or OKC; it's a short hop acrossed the territory. To act as though you are being robbed of something is spoiled and petty.

And regarding the point about the loss of East Bay fans in the shuffle of arenas... If polling and statistics tell us anything, then the only thing that'll be in trouble is Club 200. The rowdy, electric, breathing backdrop in the lower bowl will live on; as it does in the Shark Tank, as it does in Candlestick, as it does in AT&T Park. While the Black Hole is unique in its own way, it doesn't sell out the Coliseum. Go ask the A's and the Raiders how much better their crowds are than their San Francisco counterparts. Again, blind, factually void claims being trumpeted out of the East Bay. How, exactly, do you people see yourselves as better fans than the rest of us?

The truth is, Oakland needs to address the reason as to why sports teams are looking elsewhere in the first place. Like it or not, the Warriors are giving you people the ultimate "it's-not-you, it's-me" treatment right now. You can either cry in your bedroom for 3 weeks eating tubs of ice cream or you can hit the gym and show your ex why she was wrong to leave you in the first place.

But this frantic squealing of "it's not fair!"... Really, it just makes the East Bay look bad.

32 wrote:I guess I just don't understand the lack of ownership that you guys are feeling: it's still your team and it's still in your territory. Yes, it's being relocated to San Francisco, but geographically speaking (on a national scale): it's just moving down the street. Things could have been a lot worse in terms of a move (ask Seattle). I don't have a problem with the 49ers moving from San Francisco to Santa Clara, and from what I've heard out of SF locals, neither do many of them.

Joe Lacob stated two very important things on the Tom Tolbert Show two days ago: (1) that winning is the absolute top priority and (2) that several unnamed (for reasons of litigation) free agents declined to even speak with the Warriors, their agents dismissively stipulating: "talk to us when you move to San Francisco."

We all understand the hardships that teams based in Salt Lake City, Mineapolis, and Sacramento face when attempting to court marquee free agent talent. The unfortunate truth is that Oakland (as it currently stands) is pretty close to (if not entirely situated in) that category. The past few years, we've watched our team shell out $80 million for 6 years of David Lee, $50 million over 5 for Corey Maggette. They made Monta Ellis an $11 million per year guy just so they could retain him.

And we've stood by while Dallas, Chicago, Miami, New York, and Los Angeles feasted on bargain veteran talent, interest from nearly every impending free agent of note, getting Nate Robinson type talent for veteran minimum salary (and the only reason Robinson gave us that kind of notice is because he's a local kid). The fact is, the Bay Area is the 4th biggest market in America. Dallas and Miami should be well behind us in terms of attracting talent. But, like it or not, we San Jose locals and you Oakland locals need to reconcile ourselves to the fact that San Francisco is our heavyweight hitter in this market. And from the outside looking in, it's a way more legitimate headquarters for a first class organization.

I'm not saying the city of Oakland or its people are in any way, shape, or form less valuable than any other member of the Bay Area family, but to pretend that we don't all take a backseat to the shining light of SF just frankly isn't true. The money is there. The coastal real estate is there. And the reputation is there. Again, nothing against Oakland personally. But if we're going to headline the needlepoint of NBA facilities, we might as well put our best foot forward.

In the end, ownership wouldn't be making this move if the ending result weren't going to bolster the status of this team and therefore lead to many more wins, free agents, and bargain veterans.

fullmetalx wrote:This move helps the Warrior franchise worth and more corporate sponsorship. Does this really help the on court product? Maybe a little but this announcement would be better if they had a good winning product to back it up. The promises of Warriors making the playoffs from ownership and not keeping it has hurt their credibility a little for now. There is still a long way to go for this ownership group to build good equity and it starts by making good decisions on the basketball court. Almost every beginning of Warriors season had optimism that players on the roster or player that the front office adds will bring better results, but along they way injuries or lack of talent has hurt the team playoff chances. Things are looking bright as usual, but there needs to be good results soon or else it going to feel like the past few years. There optimism that they going to get the new arena, but it will be interesting to see if they really have what it takes to over come the many obstacles in building that great new arena in San Francisco.