Warriors tickets aren’t cheap, and they are only likely to get more expensive when the team moves into their new San Francisco arena next season.
This is a bummer for some longtime Oakland fans, who after feverishly supporting the team through decades of losing, now find themselves priced out during the most successful run in franchise history.
Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard, an Oakland native, was once one of those fans, and bemoaned the fact that longtime supporters will continue to have a hard time supporting the team once the Chase Center is opened in 2019.
“They’re upset about it. It’s one of those things where success comes and you’re going to up and move,” Lillard told the San Jose Mercury News. “A lot of the real Warriors fans, a lot of times, they can’t go to the games. They can’t afford it. At that time, we were able to go to the games. Nowadays, a really good ticket is way more expensive to do everything. The people who are real Warriors fans aren’t able to get into the games.”
Golden State’s unprecedented success, combined with the Bay Area becoming more affluent thanks to an influx of tech money, has seen what was once one of the more affordable ticket prices in the NBA, balloon in recent years.
Lillard says that once the Warriors leave Oakland, the experience will never again be the same for him or his family.
“I don’t really think about it. The building really is more significant to my childhood than me playing there,” Lillard said of the move. “When I come here, I’m playing in my hometown. When they start to come to San Francisco, my family is still going to come there either way. But the memories of it and what it used to be is going to be different.”
Lillard and the Blazers play in Oakland vs. the Warriors for the final time this regular season on Thursday.