© D. Ross Cameron | 2020 Feb 26
Warriors owner Joe Lacob has a undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences and a Master’s in Public Health, giving him an interesting perspective on the coronavirus outbreak that has led to the shutdown of nearly every professional and amateur American sports league.
Lacob isn’t holding back when it comes to how the crisis is being handled, and told The Athletic on Thursday that a lack of good data is going to cost a lot of people a lot of money.
“What people don’t know is the rate of infection and the death rate,” he said, noting that many people are asymptomatic. It’s possible, Lacob said, that the death rate could end up being closer to the traditional flu season once there is a widespread testing regime in place – perhaps closer to the coronavirus numbers seen in South Korea.
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The lack of good data is fueling fear and anxiety, Lacob said, so it’s far too soon to have a firm grasp of how the NBA shutdown will affect the Warriors or any of the ancillary business and workers who depend on basketball games and Chase Center events for income.
“Honestly, I don’t know yet. The economic impact of all this is monumental,” he said. “We just lost virtually all of our revenues for the foreseeable future. But we have huge expenses that aren’t going away. I feel for these part-time employees and local restaurants and Uber drivers and all of the service people that make their living in and around events like ours. So many small businesses in the city of San Francisco will be impacted by this series of events today.”
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“When these city health departments and politicians make sweeping mandates, whether appropriate or not, they create a lot of inadvertent hardship. Unintended consequences. I realize that they are trying to protect the populace. But there are consequences,” Lacob said.
The Warriors were originally scheduled to play the Nets on Thursday evening at Chase Center in front of no fans, but saw that game, and the NBA season, get suspended shortly after it was discovered that the Jazz’ Rudy Gobert had tested positive.