Golden State Warriors
After Donna Daniels’ transient childhood following her father’s football coaching career — she moved 13 times before the end of high school — she settled in the New York area for nearly 30 years, 25 of which were spent at the NBA league office. She touched nearly everything the league was doing during that time. Daniels was crucial to the founding of the WNBA and sourcing and managing its corporate partnerships; served as vice president of strategic initiatives; had a stint at team marketing business operations; developed sponsorships; helped launch the NBA D-League, running a franchise in Roanoke; and worked on the NBA’s first promotion with McDonald’s in Japan.
That mélange unwittingly proved a perfect tutorial for running an arena, which Daniels began doing later in her career, first at Prudential Center from 2019 to 2021, and now at the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center in San Francisco since June 2022. Daniels’ career serves as a valuable, and different, model for reaching the venue management realm.
“When I look back at my 25-plus-year career prior to actually running a venue, I think my experience lends itself, for me personally, to being a better general manager,” she said. “To have the journey to understand the revenue side of our overall business, sell or manage corporate partnerships, run teams, help launch a league — I can really understand how that all needs to come to life in a venue. I don’t think I would be here if I didn’t have those 25 years of experience.”
Hobbies? Free time? Do venue managers have those things?
“I do choose to spend a lot of time here at Chase Center,” Daniels said, laughing. In seriousness, a lot of her spare time is spent traveling back to Geneva, N.Y., about an hour west of Syracuse, where her mother still lives. In a life spent moving around, trying different things, that might have been the hardest part of Daniels’ latest adventure. — Bret McCormick
Donna Daniels
General Manager, Chase Center, Golden State Warriors
Born: Buffalo
Education: Hobart and William Smith Colleges, English
More about Donna
Something that instantly makes my day better: My daily walk to work on a beautiful morning in San Francisco along the Bay while talking to my mom.
If I did not work in sports … : I would be pursuing a law degree and I still often think about being a teacher. Maybe combining both and becoming a law professor!
Biggest career risk: My biggest risk was leaving the NBA league office after an almost 25-year career.
Person in sports business I’d most like to meet: With my father’s career in football, I had always dreamed of becoming a football official as a girl. It was incredible to see Sarah Thomas complete that dream and become the first woman to do so.
