Golden State Warriors are Willing to Spend $30 million on COVID Testing

  The Golden State Warriors franchise is willing to spend $30 million USD on Covid-19 testing to ensure the opening of Chase Center at 50% capacity. 

  Joe Lacob, the owner of the majority of the Golden States Warriors association told ESPN, “I not only want to get this done and show the world how we can do it now, I’m willing to spend the money to do it”. 

  Lacob claims that the Warriors could possibly lose up to 400 million dollars, if the team continues to play without any in person fans. Lacob also believes not just his franchise would suffer, but the Nation Basketball Association would suffer incredible losses, should the restrictions on crowds remain, due to the ongoing pandemic.

  The majority of California is currently in the purple tier, the highest and most restrictive tier of Governor Gavin Newson’s reopening plan. The purple tier is being used for the areas with the highest risk of exposure to Covid-19, causing no sports arenas to be allowed to host fans. 

  Things are especially not looking promising due to the increase of coronavirus cases across the U.S. The United States case numbers have risen at an alarming rate since late October. 

  Despite all of this, Lacob is determined to be able to host Warriors fans by next season and is planning on taking many precautions to see his plan through. 

  Lacob hopes that through PCR Covid tests that involve using a nasal or throat swab, that those infected with Covid-19 will be easily identified even without showing symptoms. In addition to this, all of those who will potentially enter will have to wear an adequate face covering and social distance. 

  The start of the new season has also taken some unprecedented steps. Last year the NBA’s bubble in Orlando, Florida proved extremely useful to prevent coronavirus cases within the league. However, it does not seem that the NBA is planning on using this strategy next season. 

  The rise in cases raised problems especially for the Toronto Raptors as the surge of coronavirus cases in the United States has caused travel to Canada to be prohibited. Therefore, the Raptors are most likely going to be playing from somewhere in the United States similar to what the Toronto Blue Jays did during their season. 

  While the original plan was for a December start of the new season, determining where the Raptors are going to be playing will be one of the factors that will most likely lead to a later start.