On June 17, Beijing time, at the North Shore Garden Arena in Boston, the Golden State Warriors won 103:90 on the road and defeated the Boston Celtics 4:2 to win the 2022 NBA championship. This is the Warriors. The 7th NBA championship in history, Curry’s 4th.
In this round of global attention series, one side is the “Galaxy Battleship” led by Curry, who “created the era of small balls”, and the other side is the “Youth Guards” led by “Kobe disciple” Jayson Tatum . From the battle of wits and courage at the tactical level, to the tit-for-tat between the stars, to the “snapshot” of the role players, the two teams contributed to the most interesting finals in recent years.
In 8 years, 6 finals, 4 championships, the Warriors in the Wild West, regained the O’Brien Cup, once again demonstrated the victory of the “small ball era”. At the same time, the team with the most expensive lineup in the NBA and the team that pays the most luxury tax has won the championship.
Image source: Sina Sports
The Warriors have the league’s first high-paid lineup, and the league has set off a “golden dollar competition” in recent years
In fact, after the Warriors won the crucial “Battle of Tianwangshan”, well-known sports personality Windhorst (Windhorst) once exclaimed, “This is a victory for the Warriors’ check!”
The “Daily Economic News” reporter learned that the Warriors’ total salary this season is 176 million US dollars, ranking first in the league, exceeding the luxury tax trigger line of 40 million US dollars, and paying a total of 175 million US dollars in luxury tax. The Warriors also have four top 50 players in the league by annual salary: Curry No. 1, Thompson No. 11, Wiggins No. 26, Green No. 43, dwarfing other NBA teams.
Warriors lineup and salary this season (unit: million/dollar) Image source: Internet
In 2021, the Warriors agreed to a four-year extension with Curry. According to Spotrac, the 34-year-old superstar will earn an average annual salary of up to $53 million each next season and will once again be the No. 1 player in the NBA next season.
When talking about the Warriors’ “spending big money” to build a championship lineup, Warriors general manager Bob Myers said: “Owner Joe Lacob is willing to put all resources into the team to win games, including paying a high amount of course. Luxury tax. I know that because every time I ask him a question about his lineup and strategy, he says it’s all about winning, not payroll.”
“For a championship contender, the luxury tax is inevitable, even standard, and the arms race has been more intense in previous seasons. The Warriors’ operation is the benchmark in the league, and the 16-year cap space skyrocketed to sign Durant. , signed Russell after losing the championship in 2019, and won Wiggins after Curry and Thompson were injured. Now the Warriors are killing the Quartet in the playoffs finals, all of which are inseparable from excellent operations and full use of salary space. ” Luo Da, a veteran sports person and founder of ECO Krypton Sports, shared his observations in a phone call and WeChat interview with a reporter from “Daily Economic News”.
Not only the Warriors, but for any team aiming to compete for the championship, “money ability” is a hurdle that must be overcome. Looking at the top 10 NBA team salary rankings this season, whether it is traditional giants such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, or last year’s championship Milwaukee Bucks, or Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets such “superstars get together. “The teams are quietly “following” the Warriors and secretly competing in the “Golden Dollar Competition”.
The reporter observed that this trend has intensified since the NBA reached a 9-year “sky-high” broadcast contract of $24 billion with ESPN and TNT in 2016, whether it is the Lakers signing LeBron James or the Nets “collecting stamps” All star player.
The NBA’s top 10 teams with total salary this season. Image source: Internet
It is not enough just to have the will of “golden dollar competition”. For NBA teams, either sit in big markets like New York and Los Angeles, or have a team like Ballmer, Cai Chongxin, and Joe Lacob for the lineup.” Only the bosses who spend a lot of money can fill the skill bar of “money ability” on the road to the championship. Small market teams such as the Pistons, Thunder, Hornets and Pelicans lack the ability to compete for championships under the ethos of NBA stars in recent years.
According to the latest ranking of NBA team market value by Forbes, the Warriors, which has set off a “quick fight” in the NBA, has also risen from $3.5 billion before the epidemic to $5.6 billion in a whirlwind, surpassing the traditional tycoons. The Los Angeles Lakers have a market value of $5.5 billion, ranking second in the league after the Knicks with a market value of $5.8 billion.
Globally, the most valuable sports club is the NFL Dallas Cowboys, with a market value of about $6.5 billion. The Warriors have the sixth-highest market value among major sports clubs in the world.
It is worth mentioning that when Warriors owner Joe Lacob teamed up with his friends to buy the then-Western belly team around 2010, it “only” cost $450 million. With the improvement of the team’s record, the market value of the team has also increased by more than 10 times in more than ten years, becoming the highlight of Joe Lacob’s investment career.
Warriors’ ticket revenue hits record
Behind the Warriors’ effort to build a “galactic battleship” regardless of triggering a high luxury tax, is its “hematopoietic ability”.
According to TicketSmarter statistics, the average price of the NBA Finals has never exceeded $2,300 before. In the past few years, the most expensive average ticket for the finals was in Toronto in 2019, when the average ticket price was $2,202. The latest data shows that the average ticket price for the Warriors’ home finals this year reached $3,249.
“The record-breaking ticket price in the finals is mainly due to the proper operation of the team. The Warriors’ new arena can accommodate more people and bring better service. The team has also added Wiggins, Poole, Payton and many other players. Coupled with the backing of the big football market, more and more fans are willing to pay high prices for tickets.” Luo Da told the “Daily Economic News” reporter.
The high price of tickets has even attracted heated discussions among NBA players. Celtics star Jaylen Brown previously uploaded a video on social media and joked, “Don’t ask me for tickets, watch free live TV!”
Take G5 of this year’s finals as an example, before the game, the Warriors’ home Chase Center was hard to get a ticket. The cheapest tickets at the show were all sold for around $900, and the most expensive was an astounding $56,000. The average price of courtside seats reached $15,000, and they were all sold out. The Warriors have a total of 304 seats on the sidelines, and this small circle alone can earn almost $4.56 million.
A schematic diagram of the ticket price of the “core area” on the sidelines of the Chase Center at the Warriors’ home court. Image source: Internet
Industry insiders pointed out that the Chase Center, the home of the Warriors, can accommodate at least 18,000 fans. The average ticket price is conservatively estimated at $2,800. According to the 100% attendance rate of G5, the Warriors can get $50.4 million in ticket revenue for this game alone. “It’s almost like a Curry can be earned from tickets to the finals.”
Although the NBA League will take about 25% of the ticket revenue, the ticket revenue of the Warriors G5 will still reach around $37.8 million. Including fan consumption, consumption and advertising revenue around the home court, plus broadcast rights revenue, the Warriors’ net profit in G5 of the finals will reach at least 50 million US dollars.
For competitive sports, “winning is the last word”. In recent years, the Warriors have won multiple championships, greatly increasing the home ticket price. The “Daily Economic News” reporter learned that in the 2020-2021 season, when the Warriors did not enter the playoffs, their operating income still reached 474 million US dollars, after deducting salary and luxury tax expenses, the net profit was as high as 200 million US dollars , ranked No. 1 in all NBA teams.
According to the “Washington Post” previously reported, although the Warriors’ attendance rate has dropped by 12% this season, its season ticket revenue has reached 4.2 million US dollars per game, ranking first in the league, far exceeding the second-ranked average per game. The Lakers with $3.1 million in ticket sales.
According to industry sources, according to the Golden State Warriors’ terrifying “gold-absorbing ability”, the Warriors’ expected operating income this season will exceed $700 million, minus the total salary expenditure of $348 million. It reached a record high of $352 million in a single season in the NBA.
At present, relying on the strong “library gravitation” and the team’s brand effect, the Warriors are vigorously laying out a new business blueprint, including the release of NFT products, the creation of more peripherals, the layout of film and television IP, and the strengthening of cross-border cooperation with technology giants such as Accenture and Google Cloud. world cooperation.
The Warriors’ future goal, according to team president Brandon Schneider, is to become “a global leader in experiences and entertainment.”
“NFTs are a fantastic way to engage our global fan base. When you think about the fan experience, the first thing that comes to mind is the Chase Center. But 99% of our fans don’t have the opportunity to go to the Chase Center. The way you engage your fans is critical,” says Brandon Schneider.
The “Technology Map” behind the championship One of the earliest teams to use big data analysis
As one of the first teams in the league to embrace and rely most on big data technology, the rise of the Warriors is no accident, and it is inseparable from the support of technology. Taking advantage of the natural advantages of being close to Silicon Valley and the network of team owners in the technology circle, the Chase Center, the home of the Warriors, has become a “testing ground” for cutting-edge sports technology in the world.
In order to build a “black technology” team, as early as 2016, the owner of the Warriors, Joe Lacob, decided to build a brand-new intelligent arena in San Francisco, the Chase Center. League first.
In the arena design stage, Joe Lacob found the familiar IT giant Accenture to be responsible for planning, reserved the location in advance, set up millions of data collection points in the stadium, and established a new data collection system.
At the same time, Joe Lacob also invited a group of data engineers from Silicon Valley to form a big data team for the Warriors, helping the team gradually establish a core play based on team passing, cutting, and three-point shooting. . This is the key to the Warriors’ team’s ability to play a mercury-like smooth offense, making 1,000 three-pointers in a season and repeatedly breaking the NBA three-point record.
Today, the new intelligent venue of the Chase Center can record the movement, shooting, dribbling rate, average heart rate, player cooperation and other massive data of every player of the Warriors in real time. Like the constantly iterative SportVU system, it can track the basketball skills-related movements of all players on the court through smart cameras.
How to convert massive data into “team combat power”? This is inseparable from the help of many Silicon Valley giants. For example, Google cloud tools will help the Warriors collect and process data, while Oracle, the title company of the Warriors’ Oakland Arena, visualizes abstract data.
Big data tools analyze NBA teams’ offensive and defensive formations Image source: Network
In recent years, the Warriors’ coaching staff have become more proficient in using big data processing and the intelligent decision-making system MOCAP to formulate reasonable on-the-spot tactics and simulate lineup combinations in various situations – including who Curry is more threatening in pick-and-rolls, and how Wiggins uses it. More efficiency, bench timing, etc.
Based on the big data model, the engineers of the Warriors even refined the data analysis to the details of the tactical cooperation between the two players. When the Warriors are “charged” on the field, the Warriors coaching staff can receive the field data in real time and find some problems that are difficult to detect with the naked eye.
Warriors head coach Kerr said, “Data analysis has become an important part of today’s basketball operations, and for a head coach like me, I have been observing different lineup combinations based on real-time data. The effect of game strategy.”
Not only on the field, the Warriors also took the lead in using corresponding sports technology. For example, the Catapult Sports wireless device can track the subtle movements of the players in real time, monitor the heart rate and speed of the players’ running, and give timely feedback on the pressure of the knees and ankles. This technology can help the Warriors coaching staff scientifically arrange which players can play and which players are exhausted and need to rest.
In addition, in recent years, the Warriors have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in medical technology, sports equipment, players’ mental health, etc., actively participated in research trials, and continuously improved the team’s “technology map”.
Cover image source: Daily Economic News Data Map
Cover image source: Daily Economic News Data Map
