StillMonty'sBiggestFan
Prospect
I am firmly on the Lacob side of this argument...to the extent this should even BE an argument. Until the story came out that this was booked before he was getting a team, my firmness on this stance was a little softer than it is now. Because they have been trying to figure out how to deal with whether or not it could still work at Chase or across the bay at the arena formerly known as Roaracle, for him to be able to predict this very scenario in 2023, he would have to know the following....(1) that his expansion team would secure a playoff spot,
(2) that it would not be a top-four seed if it did get a playoff spot, and/or (3) that the league would change the playoff format so that if his team didn't get a top 4 spot, there would now be a likelihood that his expansion team would be in position to play a game at home if it didn't get swept in the old format.
If I were to quibble with anything about this, it would be how come they did not acknowledge this was going to be a problem earlier. Fans have known since maybe July (I don't remember when the first story was published about the potential conflict, but I know I had read about this a while ago. But I'll come back to that.
This guy has done everything right by this team, the fan experience (I have a quibble there, too, but not as it relates to the overall experience), and setting a tone about commitment and investment. He's at every game courtside. Nevermind how deeply invested he's been in women's basketball in the past.
They've had to have known prior to the start of the season that, if in the wildest of their imaginations, their plucky expansion team would land a playoff spot in the very first year of its existence, there was going to be a conflict. The way the league sets the schedule, I believe, is that the teams give the league the dates their buildings aren't available, and the regular season gets scheduled once the league office has all that info to crunch. I doubt that they didn't know this could be a problem well before this. The league also knows, which means the teams know the window for the playoff rounds, since they have to block out a national TV schedule for that. I'm sure the story that came out earlier this summer happened because some reporter did the math. It didn't get picked up more widely until it became clearer that they would actually clinch a berth. To me, the ONLY thing that changed in the equation is whether or not they would have any chance to salvaging whichever of the two possible dates a game could have be set at Chase once the Valkyries were eliminated for potentially being a team with home-court advantage (I'm not sure that would have worked out but might have been more plausible since they had another date to work with I believe before the tennis set up had to happen.)
He's losing money going to SAP center. I'm VERY certain he cares that that is happening as much as he cares about the hit his brand has taken. I don't quite remember the numbers from the Forbes article early in the season, but if there are other WNBA cities where they are raking in the money he's able to get people to pay to sit courtside or in club seating, I want to know. This 100% a move that is not without a financial hit. The hit may be even bigger if they do try to provide some sort of subsidy like they do to get people to and from Chase via SF Muni. to get folks to and from the BART stop in San Jose to SAP Center. I was talking to some fans after the game on Sat who said fans have been asking if that could happen. I'm not sure how feasible that would be, but it would be a nice gesture for the fans in the East Bay for whom getting to and from CalTrain would be a pain. So we'll see how this goes.
The quibble I mentioned earlier is that, again, they must have known before their actual acknowledgement that they would have to change the venue, but they asked for a post-season pay-as-you-go sign on a few weeks ago. There are some folks who would have made a different decision about paying upfront if they had been aware that the game was potentially moving down to the South Bay. I will give them grace that they may not have officially confirmed that they would not have been able to make the arena conversion work for that practice day until however long ago presumably before folks had to get their money in. They needed to be more transparent about that, because the move changes the equation for some fans in how they have to plan to get down there on a weekday. The bulk of their fan base is in SF and the East Bay, I'm guessing from the arena roll call. Granted, it seems that this would only affect the first round (I haven't read anything that suggests there are later rounds with any other booking issue but it would have been nice to have been told at that stage "hey...look, this might become a thing...."
The Monarchs had this come up, don't remember what year it - it might have been the first year they made the playoffs, which I think was a season where the first round was just a single game. ARCO had been booked for one of those Olympic team gymnastic tour stops and there would have been a conflict if they had hosted (I don't remember if it was that or contingent on whether they made it to the playoffs at all). Had they needed a building, they would have likely moved to UC Davis's gym. Jerry Reynolds considered it a nice problem to have to deal with since the Monarchs hadn't played well in the seasons prior to even worry about the playoffs. Turned out they didn't need a bldg. Lacob's bunch however is needing to re-seat 18k plus. It isn't as much of an aw shucks moment. I also can't remotely fathom how they could have forseen this. I'd put a couple of bucks down on it never happening again too, Lacob ain't James Dolan.
(2) that it would not be a top-four seed if it did get a playoff spot, and/or (3) that the league would change the playoff format so that if his team didn't get a top 4 spot, there would now be a likelihood that his expansion team would be in position to play a game at home if it didn't get swept in the old format.
If I were to quibble with anything about this, it would be how come they did not acknowledge this was going to be a problem earlier. Fans have known since maybe July (I don't remember when the first story was published about the potential conflict, but I know I had read about this a while ago. But I'll come back to that.
This guy has done everything right by this team, the fan experience (I have a quibble there, too, but not as it relates to the overall experience), and setting a tone about commitment and investment. He's at every game courtside. Nevermind how deeply invested he's been in women's basketball in the past.
They've had to have known prior to the start of the season that, if in the wildest of their imaginations, their plucky expansion team would land a playoff spot in the very first year of its existence, there was going to be a conflict. The way the league sets the schedule, I believe, is that the teams give the league the dates their buildings aren't available, and the regular season gets scheduled once the league office has all that info to crunch. I doubt that they didn't know this could be a problem well before this. The league also knows, which means the teams know the window for the playoff rounds, since they have to block out a national TV schedule for that. I'm sure the story that came out earlier this summer happened because some reporter did the math. It didn't get picked up more widely until it became clearer that they would actually clinch a berth. To me, the ONLY thing that changed in the equation is whether or not they would have any chance to salvaging whichever of the two possible dates a game could have be set at Chase once the Valkyries were eliminated for potentially being a team with home-court advantage (I'm not sure that would have worked out but might have been more plausible since they had another date to work with I believe before the tennis set up had to happen.)
He's losing money going to SAP center. I'm VERY certain he cares that that is happening as much as he cares about the hit his brand has taken. I don't quite remember the numbers from the Forbes article early in the season, but if there are other WNBA cities where they are raking in the money he's able to get people to pay to sit courtside or in club seating, I want to know. This 100% a move that is not without a financial hit. The hit may be even bigger if they do try to provide some sort of subsidy like they do to get people to and from Chase via SF Muni. to get folks to and from the BART stop in San Jose to SAP Center. I was talking to some fans after the game on Sat who said fans have been asking if that could happen. I'm not sure how feasible that would be, but it would be a nice gesture for the fans in the East Bay for whom getting to and from CalTrain would be a pain. So we'll see how this goes.
The quibble I mentioned earlier is that, again, they must have known before their actual acknowledgement that they would have to change the venue, but they asked for a post-season pay-as-you-go sign on a few weeks ago. There are some folks who would have made a different decision about paying upfront if they had been aware that the game was potentially moving down to the South Bay. I will give them grace that they may not have officially confirmed that they would not have been able to make the arena conversion work for that practice day until however long ago presumably before folks had to get their money in. They needed to be more transparent about that, because the move changes the equation for some fans in how they have to plan to get down there on a weekday. The bulk of their fan base is in SF and the East Bay, I'm guessing from the arena roll call. Granted, it seems that this would only affect the first round (I haven't read anything that suggests there are later rounds with any other booking issue but it would have been nice to have been told at that stage "hey...look, this might become a thing...."
The Monarchs had this come up, don't remember what year it - it might have been the first year they made the playoffs, which I think was a season where the first round was just a single game. ARCO had been booked for one of those Olympic team gymnastic tour stops and there would have been a conflict if they had hosted (I don't remember if it was that or contingent on whether they made it to the playoffs at all). Had they needed a building, they would have likely moved to UC Davis's gym. Jerry Reynolds considered it a nice problem to have to deal with since the Monarchs hadn't played well in the seasons prior to even worry about the playoffs. Turned out they didn't need a bldg. Lacob's bunch however is needing to re-seat 18k plus. It isn't as much of an aw shucks moment. I also can't remotely fathom how they could have forseen this. I'd put a couple of bucks down on it never happening again too, Lacob ain't James Dolan.
