Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the Golden State Warriors in 2010 for $450 million when the team was a tenant in Oracle Arena, the NBA’s oldest building. Fifteen years later, the Warriors have evolved into a multiclub business with an arena they own and thriving mixed-use development outside of it.
The evolution has resulted in a new corporate name for what was GSW Sports: Golden State.
“We talked about going from a basketball team to a sports and entertainment company,” Golden State president Brandon Schneider said in a video interview. “I think the name that brings it all together is overdue.”
Golden State Group is the official name of the entity and encompasses the Warriors, WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries, G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors, production company Golden State Entertainment, 11-acre mixed-use development Thrive City and the $1.4 billion Chase Center.
The Valkyries tip off their inaugural season this month, and WNBA fans will see the consumer-facing changes of the new corporate moniker. The Warriors’ retail stores at Chase and Thrive City will now be branded Golden State where you can buy Warriors and Valkyries gear. The new bridge logo and co-branded graphics will be installed throughout the properties in the coming weeks.
There is an updated Golden State app with information for the NBA and WNBA teams, as well as the arena and Thrive City. The foundation (Golden State Community Foundation) and basketball camps (Golden State Sports Academy) are also rebranded. Kids at the basketball camps used to receive Warriors jerseys, but moving forward, they will be issued reversible jerseys, Warriors on one side and Valkyries on the other.
There are numerous examples of NBA teams held by parent companies with multiple assets, such as Player 15 Group in Phoenix, Smith Entertainment Group in Salt Lake City and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment in Philadelphia. Schneider says they studied all of these when thinking about structure and naming the entity. Befitting its place as Silicon Valley’s team, Golden State also looked outside of sports to tech giants Meta and Alphabet, which began as Facebook and Google. “We wanted something that wasn’t a huge departure,” Schneider said. “We think it will be a smooth transition.”
Schneider said the individual teams and entities will continue to have their dedicated staffs, while the executive team and certain departments will function across all of Golden State. There will be a sales staff with the parent company that will make it more seamless and effective when discussing multiplatform partnerships, according to Schneider.
The Chase Center will be busy this month, with the Warriors punching their ticket Sunday night to the second round of the NBA playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Valkyries’ inaugural regular-season home game will be on May 16.
Since 2010, the Warriors transformed from a perennial money-losing franchise that rarely made the playoffs into a financial juggernaut and the NBA’s most valuable franchise at $9.14 billion, including related businesses and real estate. In 2023, Warriors ownership secured a WNBA team for the Bay Area for $50 million. The Valkyries, who are the first WNBA expansion team since 2008, are trending toward an equally dominant position. In March, they became the first WNBA team to sell 10,000 season tickets.
Golden State is not stopping at its current collection of assets.
“We’re definitely interested in buying another team, and at some point when the opportunity is right, that would be part of Golden State,” Schneider said. “This is set up for who we are today, but this is also set up for who we will continue to evolve into in the future.”
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Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the Golden State Warriors in 2010 for $450 million when the team was a tenant in Oracle Arena, the NBA’s oldest building. Fifteen years later, the Warriors have evolved into a multiclub business with an arena they own and thriving mixed-use development outside of it.
The evolution has resulted in a new corporate name for what was GSW Sports: Golden State.
“We talked about going from a basketball team to a sports and entertainment company,” Golden State president Brandon Schneider said in a video interview. “I think the name that brings it all together is overdue.”
Golden State Group is the official name of the entity and encompasses the Warriors, WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries, G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors, production company Golden State Entertainment, 11-acre mixed-use development Thrive City and the $1.4 billion Chase Center.
The Valkyries tip off their inaugural season this month, and WNBA fans will see the consumer-facing changes of the new corporate moniker. The Warriors’ retail stores at Chase and Thrive City will now be branded Golden State where you can buy Warriors and Valkyries gear. The new bridge logo and co-branded graphics will be installed throughout the properties in the coming weeks.
There is an updated Golden State app with information for the NBA and WNBA teams, as well as the arena and Thrive City. The foundation (Golden State Community Foundation) and basketball camps (Golden State Sports Academy) are also rebranded. Kids at the basketball camps used to receive Warriors jerseys, but moving forward, they will be issued reversible jerseys, Warriors on one side and Valkyries on the other.
There are numerous examples of NBA teams held by parent companies with multiple assets, such as Player 15 Group in Phoenix, Smith Entertainment Group in Salt Lake City and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment in Philadelphia. Schneider says they studied all of these when thinking about structure and naming the entity. Befitting its place as Silicon Valley’s team, Golden State also looked outside of sports to tech giants Meta and Alphabet, which began as Facebook and Google. “We wanted something that wasn’t a huge departure,” Schneider said. “We think it will be a smooth transition.”
Schneider said the individual teams and entities will continue to have their dedicated staffs, while the executive team and certain departments will function across all of Golden State. There will be a sales staff with the parent company that will make it more seamless and effective when discussing multiplatform partnerships, according to Schneider.
The Chase Center will be busy this month, with the Warriors punching their ticket Sunday night to the second round of the NBA playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Valkyries’ inaugural regular-season home game will be on May 16.
Since 2010, the Warriors transformed from a perennial money-losing franchise that rarely made the playoffs into a financial juggernaut and the NBA’s most valuable franchise at $9.14 billion, including related businesses and real estate. In 2023, Warriors ownership secured a WNBA team for the Bay Area for $50 million. The Valkyries, who are the first WNBA expansion team since 2008, are trending toward an equally dominant position. In March, they became the first WNBA team to sell 10,000 season tickets.
Golden State is not stopping at its current collection of assets.
“We’re definitely interested in buying another team, and at some point when the opportunity is right, that would be part of Golden State,” Schneider said. “This is set up for who we are today, but this is also set up for who we will continue to evolve into in the future.”
