In order for the Golden State Warriors to pay for their new $1.1 billion arena in San Francisco, they are also building 580,000 square feet of office space to be occupied by Uber.

To compensate for the move and their exorbitant luxury tax bills, the Warriors sold off 45 percent of this San Francisco project to the ride-share company, as well as 10 percent to Alexandria Real Estate equities. The Warriors retained 45 percent ownership of that office space.

At recent board of governors meetings, many owners have been describing the NBA as a real estate company.

"The economics don't make any sense if you don't have additional opportunities to drive revenue to justify putting a billion dollars to building one of these," said Golden State CEO Rick Welts.

Sources say that additional basketball-related income from the move into the new arena is projected to reach between $175 and $200 million annually over current numbers at Oracle Arena. 

The Warriors anticipate healthy earnings from their real estate and unlike revenue generated from activity within the arena, it is not subject to BRI.

"This is the foundation of our success for the next 40 years," Welts says. "Our core product will always be the Warriors and the thing people care most about, but flowing from that are going to be businesses that, [when] very carefully chosen, we can leverage the Warriors' success by doing more things."