The Warriors have hired Rick Welts as their new President & COO. He will oversee all business-related operations for the team and will report directly to co-Owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber. He joins the Warriors after nine years with the Suns, where he served as President & CEO for the last two seasons (Warriors). The AP’s Janie McCauley notes the Warriors will introduce Welts today at their training facility. He replaces Robert Rowell, who “resigned in June as the club’s top executive for business operations.” Welts left the Suns “earlier this month for personal reasons, four months after he became the first senior sports executive to openly acknowledge he was gay.” He said at the time that he would “relocate to Northern California to be with his partner.” Welts said that he “hoped to return to work for a professional sports franchise in the Bay Area” (AP, 9/26). In Phoenix, Paul Coro reports Welts' hiring came “a week after his first conversation" with Lacob. Welts said Suns Managing General Partner Robert Sarver “really was the one who initiated the conversation on my behalf. I had been looking forward to doing different things but the opportunity with this team and this market worked so well for me geographically.” Lacob said, “Robert called to let me know Rick was going to be available and wanted, for personal reasons, to move to the Bay Area. We jumped all over it” (ARIZONA REPULBIC, 9/27).
