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May 23, 2012
Golden State Warriors Officially Moving To San Francisco
SFist
by Andrew Dalton
Congratulations, San Francisco! You're getting your very own privately funded [wink, wink] pro basketball arena!
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At 10 a.m. Tuesday, Mayor Ed Lee and the Golden State Warriors front office are scheduled to make good on months of rumors by officially announcing a deal to bring the NBA franchise back to San Francisco proper. According to the Chronicle, the deal will bring a $500 million, privately financed 17,000 - 19,000-seat arena to Pier 30 along the southern Embarcadero. The new arena is expected to be completed in time for the team to start hosting home games on the waterfront during the 2017 - 2018 season.
The team hasn't drawn up any blueprints for the arena yet, but they are confident they can rehab the aging pier to the point where it can support the scores of basketball fans. In exchange for fixing up the pier, the team gets a long-term lease on the 13 waterfront acres as well as a 2-acre parking lot across the Embarcadero. As part of the deal, the new stadium will need to include a "maritime element," which could include ferry or water taxi service directly to the arena.
...The deal sounds like a win for city residents as well. According to the Mayor and team officials, the project won't require any money or new taxes from the city and will be 100% financed by the team's investment group.
NoLandGrab: You can absolutely, positively bank on two things here — when they say it "sounds like a win for city residents," it most surely won't be, and when they say it "won't require any money or new taxes from the city" and will be "100% financed by the team's investment group," that "investment group" will include the taxpayer's, and plenty of their money.
Image: The Warriors/Future Cities
Posted by eric at May 23, 2012 10:43 AM