The Golden State Warriors have set themselves up for what could be a bare-knuckles brawl between the organization, the NBA, and the City of Oakland and the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority. This blogger attended this morning’s press conference held at San Francisco Pier 30-32, where the new arena would be built and opened by 2017, and talked to NBA Commissioner David Stern, both Warriors Owners Peter Guber and Joe Lacob, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, and Warriors Legend Al Attles.
Of the group, it was Lacob who had the most to say, stating at one point that “Oakland is challenged” in remarks about working with the City of Oakland, and stopped just short of being directly critical of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, saying he didn’t want to upset her. All of this is on video, coming later this evening.
Then, I went to Oakland City Hall to talk with Oakland Councilmember and Coliseum JPA Board Member Ignacio De La Fuente about the Warriors remarks. Ignacio reminded everyone that the Warriors have a contract with them, and would owe about $105 million. That’s a number the Warriors have to factor into the total cost to build an entirely-privately financed deal. Right now, from my educated guess, that number is going to be about $660 million.
Stay tuned. The video, and segment videos, will be posted this evening.
Bill Carroll