Golden State Warriors president and CEO Rick Welts wants to know if the fans would be OK with the idea of the team calling themselves the San Francisco Warriors again.

In an interview with ESPN, Welts says he wants to ask the fans to see if a name change would be something they would favor.

“We’re very curious what our fans think of that,” Welts told ESPN.com. “I couldn’t imagine making that decision in the very near future, but we definitely want to see what our fans prefer.”

This comes following the news of the team purchasing land in Mission Bay in San Francisco for a new arena. Also, the team had previous played in San Francisco and went by that name from 1962-71. But since 1971, they were known as the Golden State Warriors.

It make sense to change the name back since they are playing in San Francisco. However, the team is not just San Francisco’s team. They are the Bay Area’s team. Having played both in San Francisco and Oakland (and even one season in San Jose) the Warriors are the Bay Area’s team. The name doesn’t reflect all of California, but it represents the Bay.

Unlike baseball and football, the Warriors are the only team of their sport in the NBA. A change to San Francisco wouldn’t take away that, but it would feel like a move to ignore the Oakland side. A name change like this is a big one especially since they’ve had the “Golden State” name longer.

Do the fans like the current name or the move back to San Francisco warrants a change in their opinion? I think keeping the team name is fine. In fact, you can call them the Bay Area Warriors — because that’s who they really are.