The Warriors look to be on the verge of moving to the Embarcadero in San Francisco.
I’d never leave Oakland, if every day was up me. I have everything at arm’s length. There’s food from around the world, teeming farmers markets, lush green hills, Redwood trees, Mosswood Park, Grand Lake Theatre–this is all within two miles. But I made the mistake of making friends along the way, and this can pull me into San Francisco on a given night.
For the life of me, I’ll never get the San Francisco thing. The place is windy, there’s no parking, and many neighborhoods feel like Children of Men if our childless post-apocalyptic hellscape was comprised of twenty somethings trying to outcool each other.
To make matters worse, many of these twenty somethings feel some amount of pride for just existing in the 415, even if that existence sits about in a rattrap apartment on a dilapidated block. A San Franciscan could walk to work through his urine-soaked street, using discarded malt liquor bottles as stepping stones, and still have the audacity to sneer at Oakland for having some abstract crime problem that would never effect this hypothetical person.
But people will continue to live in San Francisco because it’s San Francisco, and people will continue to want to live where people are. Bars pump ear-bleedingly loud music out onto the street, not because they think their customers like it, but because new customers will be drawn to such a noisy, crowded place. Remember that part about “no parking”? This what happens to a highly desired location. Popularity perpetuates itself.
To a degree, San Francisco is desirable because it’s desired. Oakland is Oakland, a massively underrated city that fulfils my needs like San Francisco can’t. Guess which is the better place for the Golden State Warriors? It’s that West Bay city national broadcasters keep showing during Warriors games while pretending Oakland doesn’t exist.
San Francisco is where the money is, and it’s where the money wants to be on a Friday night. San Jose is closer to the actual Silicon Valley wellspring of cash, but the Valley would rather be seen in glamorous San Francisco. If the Warriors ever became good in this SF stadium–and that is a large “if” given the history–GSW basketball could, bizarrely, have a national cachet connected to how many annoying yuppies vie to witness it. I don’t see this as a terrible outcome, so long as the TV product improves. Speaking of which, do you know where free agents like to go? They tend to pick cities replete with pockets-swollen yuppies.
Of course, the average fan gets screwed, because the average fan always gets screwed. I’m looking at this as more of an inevitability than bemoaning the situation. You know why? Because, even in the East Oakland stadium, Warriors ineptitude was all that priced regular joes into the games. The Oracle tax bracket got into that tech entrepreneur strata when the Warriors made their We Believe run. There’s too much money in the Bay to prevent this. So perhaps blue collar types won’t go to Dubs games as often. They were only able to go in the first place because the Warriors were a consistent disappointment in their lives.
There is a lot I love and that I’ll miss about Oracle, but this wasn’t the happiest marriage in the world. The Warriors mostly pumped bad memories into that structure and the booing of Lacob reflects as much. Tell me about Oakland losing a team, and I’ll tell you about all the dudes at Mosswood in Lakers gear. It’s more important that the Warriors be relevant in the Bay Area than that they be in the East Bay specifically. I don’t get a dime from Joe Lacob, but if his getting rich can help the Warriors be actually relevant, I’m fine with that. Besides, it’s one BART stop away from downtown Oakland. This isn’t exactly Sonicsgate.
You will see how technicians repair and perform maintenance on heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units and appliances. You will take courses where you learn by doing procedures yourself, rather than training from an educational textbook. You will also learn practical and applicable skills, so that once you complete your education, you know won’t have to wonder how to begin your career. You’ll be ready to jump right in.
You will see how technicians repair and perform maintenance on heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units and appliances. You will take courses where you learn by doing procedures yourself, rather than training from an educational textbook. You will also learn practical and applicable skills, so that once you complete your education, you know won’t have to wonder how to begin your career. You’ll be ready to jump right in.
why all the hate from you townies?
i don’t get it. the W’s have always been a BAY AREA team. not oakland, not sf, not sj, the WHOLE bay area. you can smear SF all you like, the facts remain that SF is the destination here. sf is a real, first class city. people from all over the world come here to visit. not oakland. not sj.
your arguments are weak at best, your foolish bias is just silly. grow up. people said the same lame crap about the giants leaving the stick. guess what? it’s turned out to be their best move. the fans flock to see them. same thing will happen with the W’s.
besides, SF and west bay fans are part of the current fanbase that goes to oakland to see them play. you act like it’s all east bay people who sell out the Bore-icle now.
in short: get over yourself. the only fans that sound fair weather are the ones saying they’re done with the W’s because they’re moving back to their original home.
So we should all be happy that our city is going to get left in financial ruin so the Warriors will have a shiny new stadium 7 minutes across the bay bridge? Ironically, the new arena will be staring right at Oakland.
This is more than just a basketball team to Oakland. Forget anything about reciprocating the dedication of the East Bay fans – this will leave Oakland in the lurch.
I’m still trying to figure out why Oakland deserves this, when did Oakland start deserving such treament and why wont it stop? Is the place so awful that it can’t be built up the same way San Francisco was? The Warriors would and could be a MAJOR lynchpin to that effort.
Count me as one diehard and long time Oakland Warriors fan that will bail out on the Warriors and adopt a different NBA team once the Warriors move to SF. Thanks for decades of memories, Oakland Warriors, and for giving us Chris Engler and Todd Fuller. Good riddance, San Francisco Warriors.
just curious, are you a newer oakland resident? or did you actually grow up in oakland?
I love having professional sports in oakland. We all know that the warriors have been making money all these years with losing teams.
I hope the REAL hard core East Bay W’s fans (the ones who have consistently sold out Oracle during all the losing years) don’t show up next year and boo and heckle the crap out that douche Lacob!
They will be so far in debt once they build that overpriced Arena in SF and there won’t be as many consistent sellouts like at Oracle because of the corporate 1% snobby fake fair weather fans won’t go to the games when they keep SUCKING! Lacob should have waited for Coliseum City.
Great write-up. As a New Jersey Nets fan for 12 years, I see a lot of similarities between your developing situation and what we’ve been through for the last 8 years. There were hurt feelings at first, as for many of us there is a huge difference between rooting for a New Jersey team and rooting for a New York/Brooklyn team, but at the end of the day it is about what’s best for the franchise, and a move across a river shouldn’t affect fanhood. I’ve come to embrace the Brooklyn move because I know it will bring opportunities (and free agents) that would never come playing in the New Jersey swamps or in Newark, the 6th Borough. The buzz over the new logos and color scheme confirms this already.
Good luck with your pending move, I hope it pays off. Warriors fans are a resilient passionate bunch even though their recent history gives them no reason to be, and they deserve to be rewarded.
I think it’s okay the Warriors are moving to San Francisco. The only negative I see is that it will be harder for non-peninsula fans to get to the game. The Oakland arena was a convenient location with decent parking and great mass transit (BART, Train, buses, etc.) access. Otherwise, it just may make it easier to attract those premiere free agents. Because, unfair or not, San Francisco is “The City.”
Winning and being a consistent winning organization attracts high priced free agents BTW!
C’mon Sherwood.
How will Oakland change if the very factors of change make up reasons to avoid it?
What if Superman only went to the good neighborhoods because he looked better on TV when he did the interviews? Why would he rescue some poor minority from Detroit from a train-wreck when he could be rescuing a blonde damsel from a coffee spill in the Marina?
This will destroy Oakland from a financial and morale standpoint. I’m glad that you and the city of San Francisco are so overjoyed at that prospect. Hey, at least the Warriors will enjoy that squeaky-clean image, right? The Tenderloin is far worse than any single place in Oakland. Oakland’s crime is 95% due to gangs and it generally stays in isolated areas. You’d think you were going to get shot the minute you crossed the bridge if you only listened to the news.
This isn’t about right or wrong – this is about pro sports owners making money. The right thing to do would be to stop abandoning Oakland. The lucrative thing to do would be to syphon off of San Francisco.
It’s as simple as that.
Warrior sellout every game in Oakland, but have only had 6 winning seasons in the last 30 years. The Warriors should stay in Oakland.