Warriors playoff game might force rescheduling of Chance the Rapper concert
When the NBA released its playoff schedule late Wednesday night, there weren’t many surprises. Both the Warriors and Cavaliers got ABC games and other prime TV slots. The Raptors and Bucks are the NBA TV series, as expected. Nothing stood out.
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Until, that is, Bay Area fans began to realize that there was a scheduling conflict involving the Warriors and Trail Blazers. The date of a potential Game 5 coincided with a Chance the Rapper concert scheduled for Wednesday, April 26 at Oracle Arena:
Chance’s website confirms that Oracle Arena was set to host the concert, which is the second on a 37-stop tour. The concert was set for 8 p.m. local time. On a Wednesday night, there was no chance the arena would be able to host both the concert and a playoff game.
The solution, according to the Warriors, is likely that the concert will be rescheduled. Here’s the official statement from Warriors PR, via SB Nation:
When booking concert events at the arena during a playoff run, we typically schedule contingency dates for that event. The Warriors will have the priority on April 26th.
A formal announcement for the Chance the Rapper show is in the works, pending that the show will be moved.
The concert could be pushed up one night to Tuesday, April 25, which is currently an off day for both the NBA teams and Chance. Another possibility is April 28, when the two teams would be back in Portland for a potential — though probably unnecessary — Game 6. Or Chance could move back both his Oakland and Sacramento shows by one night.
This is not the first time a playoff game has bumped a concert off an arena’s schedule. Only last year, a Raptors playoff game forced a Pearl Jam concert to be pushed back a day. The Pacers also made Mumford & Sons fans wait one extra day for a concert in Indianapolis. The Cavs almost took precedence over Justin Bieber, but LeBron and co. swept the Pistons, so Bieber’s concert went ahead as planned. So this is not the first time basketball will trump music.
Of course, there is a possibility, if not an expectation, that a fifth game won’t even be necessary — that the Warriors will storm past the Blazers to a four-game sweep. But Chance and the Warriors will at least have to announce a contingency plan before we know if a Game 5 will be required. Officials can’t really wait to announce a rescheduling until after Game 4, which will be played on the night of Monday, April 24, two days before Game 5, and two days before the scheduled concert. There’s no word yet on what exactly the contingency plan is.
