Golden State Warriors New SF Mission Bay Arena Cost Beats $1 Billion Waterfront Plan

The Golden State Warriors planned new arena for San Francisco’s Mission Bay will reportedly cost far more than the original version that was to be built at Pier 30 / 32 on the waterfront.

That news comes from sources who are part of the effort to build the facility and have been working with a group called 50 plus 1, a kind of political consulting company that, as it happens, I suddenly know too much about. Some people who were involved with that group are with the Golden State Warriors.

What happened was that the whole deal where Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff called Warriors Owner Joe Lacob and made him an offer to buy the Mission Bay property took everyone at 50 plus 1, not to mention San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and his staff, totally by surprise. “Everyone was scrambling,” my source said, “it was total chaos.”

Moreover a large number of people who were involved in the “Warriors On The Waterfront” plan have been pushed aside by the new one – most notably the architect. But, reportedly, Rick Welts, the Warriors President has done a good job of trying to keep those politically involved in the loop, and happy. And providing promo t-shirts.  “They love t-shirts” my sources said.

Now that the smoke is slowly clearing up, and 50 plus 1’s work is not needed as they were focused on The Waterfront, the Warriors seem to have their arena plans in place, and they’re telling friends that their arena is still going to be the most expensive one in the NBA.

Regular readers of this space will recall that I was the first to say that the Warriors waterfront venue would cost over $1 billion. And that was at a time when Warriors brass was swearing that the cost would be between $500 million and $600 million.

Eventually, the cost ballooned to $983 million, and given the new price tag that would have went with an anticipated ballot measure to gain approval to build there, the final tag would certainly be over $1 billion.

Well, this time, the Warriors brass is privately telling those involved that the stadium to be constructed on the former Salesforce.com land will take even more coin that the first version, and that was starting to clock in at around $1.2 billion. And what’s more, my sources say the Warriors already have the financing lined up (which I don’t believe myself) and are ready to start the environmental impact report (EIR) process.

To repeat, the Warriors claim to have over $1 billion in financing already secured.

And, to repeat, I don’t believe it.

I don’t believe the hype with The Warriors under Joe Lacob because so much of what they do seems so seat-of-the-pants and unprofessional. From the way they go about hiring head coaches, then firing them, to the keystone cops way they’ve handled the new arena situation, including treating the City of Oakland like dirt in the process. The Warriors brass lacks a person at the top who knows how to get this project done regardless of where it’s located, Oakland or San Francisco.

Having the land is one thing, but they still have to build it and I don’t think The Warriors have the chops to get the thing done smoothly.

Does Oakland Care?

None of that matters because absent an aggressive legal move that more and more seems beyond the feckless Oakland leadership, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan can kiss the Golden State Warriors goodbye, and start trying to figure out how she’s going to replace the $70 million in rental payments that are due as part of the 1998 bond issue the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda (as the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority) .

What?

Yes. Not only are the Golden State Warriors being allowed to walk away and not pay the bill that is key to the nearly $200 million bond issue that was created to renovate the Oakland Coliseum Arena (now called Oracle Arena) between 1996 and 1998, but according to my contacts, no one connected with the Warriors has “given any thought to it” nor have they “got a call from anyone connected with Oakland.”

I’m not kidding. No threat. No lawsuit. No nothing.

The City of Oakland and the County of Alameda are, as of now, about to let the Golden State Warriors move to San Francisco, and have you, the Oakland and Alameda County taxpayer, pay the bill. And if you read this and say “no they’re not” then you really are Alice in Wonderland.

Er, Oakland.

Wake up, Alice.

Angry now? Are you? Alice? Alice?

Now that you’re pissed-off, I highly recommend you read the bond issue, and the recent Coliseum Authority decisions in its regard. The bottom line: lack of payment of the remaining “base rental payments” that are supposed to come from the Golden State Warriors will have to come from the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan should be ashamed just for allowing this state of affairs to exist without a legal challenge. It’s a black-eye to Oakland’s economic development process, and giant scarlet letter for our city’s credit rating. But in fairness to Quan, it’s not just her fault, but the whole Oakland City Council has to be held responsible for this, and the people who work for the City of Oakland. Well, let’s take it a giant step further than that, and rope in the Oakland-Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and just about every so-called pro-Oakland business group not named “Save Oakland Sports.”

And we can also blame the one publication that currently owns the name “Oakland Tribune” but has zero business owning it: The Bay Area News Paper Group, which has no ‘bang’ for anyone’s Oakland sports buck at all.

We can blame each and every one of the candidates currently running to be the next Mayor of Oakland. And especially the ones who constantly repeat the mantra “no public money” whenever the subject of retaining pro sports in Oakland comes up. This group (some personal friends of mine and should understand this is about the business of Oakland) consistently prove that politicians know nothing of sports finance, let alone the financing of large scale projects. They don’t want to take on the heavy lifting work that comes with real economic development. They’d rather leave it all to some real estate developer who put money into their reelection campaign. With all of that, they act as if they do, and want us to put them in the place where they can be in charge of, again, the the financing of large scale projects.

If someone reading this, and who fits into the last paragraph, wants to prove I’m wrong, then there’s one thing they can do: get to work on the retention of the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, now!

This is really a terrible situation. Bad for Oakland. Bad for Oaklanders. And if you are an Oaklander and aren’t pissed off about this, you have no pulse about, no feeling for, and no real love of Oakland.

Why the hell are you here?