The Warriors yesterday "revealed the season-ticket sales structure" they will use at Chase Center when it opens in '19, and the team is "calling it a 'membership' program," according to a front-page piece by Al Saracevic of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The program will "require season-ticket buyers to pay a one-time fee that will enable them to buy their seats for 30 years." In a "unique twist yet to be used in any pro sport, the Warriors promise to pay back that fee after 30 years." The ticket plan "represents the latest evolution of a business trend" of selling PSLs. The twist the Warriors are "stressing is that, unlike PSLs, which required a one-time cost allowing a customer to buy season tickets every year, this plan involves a refund at the end." The 30-year payment for Warriors fans can be done in "one lump sum, or finance the payments." The Warriors said that memberships will be "transferable and can be sold, but only through a marketplace run by the team." Warriors President & COO Rick Welts said that "half of the expected 11,000 to 12,000 season-ticket memberships would be priced under $15,000." The other half "could sell at a much higher cost." The team "plans to sell two-thirds of the 18,000 seats in the new arena as season tickets" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 7/20). ESPN.com's Darren Rovell noted the membership will be transferable, but unlike in the NFL, the licenses "will not be allowed to be resold for a value above the original price paid minus the years used." If a fan "sells the membership, the team is made aware of the price." If the price "falls short of the full price paid less the payments already made, the Warriors will make up the difference at the end of the 30-year period to the original owner" (ESPN.com, 7/19).
