Golden State Warriors announce new NFT collection

A year after becoming the first professional sports team to execute an NFT drop, the Golden State Warriors are dropping another: the first responsive NFT collection, which will be driven by the team's success in the NBA playoffs.

Each time the Warriors win a 2022 playoff series, the NFT will unlock new utilities and benefits.

"We think that NFTs are an incredible way to engage our global fan base," Warriors President and COO Brandon Schneider told ESPN. "When you think about the fan experience, a lot of people think first of Chase Center. But 99% of our fans will never go to a game at Chase. Having digital ways to engage fans has been critical."

Last year, the Warriors were the very first team to launch anNFT collection, which featured variations on the team's six championship rings and commemorative ticket stubs. They set the all-time single-item sports NFT record with $871,000. In total, the NFT collection sold 327 NFTs for over $2 million.

"We wanted to come back with something that would be innovative and be first of its kind. ... We wanted to create an NFT opportunity that enables our fans to win as our basketball team wins," Schneider said.

The collection is made up of 3,000 NFTs, featuring 12 different designs that will be randomly assigned to users when minted on the blockchain on FTX US. The benefits users receive will be based on the rarity of the NFT.

Some of the benefits include a ride on a Warriors championship float, playoff tickets, autographed memorabilia, championship rings and additional NFTs.

The biggest benefit in the collection is a special edition Gold Bar All-Access Pass, but this can be purchased only directly through the auction, unlike the other NFTs that will be assigned at random. The winner of the Gold Bar All-Access Pass will win the NFT, in addition to a physical version of the gold bar made of real gold and two tickets to all of the Warriors' home games during the playoffs.

"We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was the right way to do this special thing," Schneider said. It was a collaborative effort with Golden State's marketing team and internal NFT staff members, as well as Medium Rare -- which helped launch the Warriors' first NFT collection -- and FTX, the Warriors' cryptocurrency platform and marketplace.

One of the reasons the Warriors specifically partnered with FTX was because it allows fans to purchase NFTs with a credit card instead of crypto, which might ease new users into the market.

"We are pretty early in this journey. You have some people who have been on [cryptocurrency] for a while. [The Warriors] will bring more attention to [NFTs]," Schneider said. "We'll have more people that maybe don't know a ton about NFTs that are interested in being involved."

The Warriors' 2022 Playoff NFT Collection will mint on Friday at 10 a.m. PT. A portion of the profits from the collection will be given to the Warriors Community Foundation, which works toward supporting education and youth development in the Bay Area.