Nice of Chuck Nevius to dream a little in Thursday's SF Gate, (SF Chronicle) post of the prospect of a Warriors move across the bay to SF at a new arena next to the Giants' AT&T Park.
Yeah, and I hear the Dallas Cowboys are looking at Clovis too.
The Warriors are for sale and the hot rumor has it that Oracle chief, Larry Ellison, is the most avid suitor. Great. There's other names being floated, but Ellison has the most cash. We'll see.
Whomever buys the franchise inherits a rock-solid lease that was publicly subsidized by the city of Oakland and Alameda county. "Oracle" Arena was remodeled for over $121 million in 1997 to a state-of-the-art, 20,000-plus-seat building. It has modern amenities and a ton of parking and is near BART, with great freeway access.
So, while the idea of "SF" Warriors sounds sexy and reasonable, let us quickly go back to reality and say how utterly stupid and absurd this idea of the 'Dubs moving to SF.
For starters, if the new ownership truly wants SF, they're going to have to pay off Oakland and Alameda county and believe me, they could use the money, but about that lease? I asked a top official at the Coliseum for the specifics on the current lease deal with the Warriors.
"The License Agreement between the Warriors and the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority runs through June 30, 2017. The Warriors have four 5-year options after that. If the Warriors terminate the License Agreement prior to 2017, they are required to pay a termination fee equal to the outstanding debt on the Arena. If the Warriors leave the Arena before 2027, they remain obligated to pay certain payments related to the debt."
Reality check.
With interest, try anywhere from $100 to $150 million. That, on top of the roughly $400 or so million to buy the team. That's a lot of Steph Curry jump shots. Think over a half-billion bucks.
IN THIS ECONOMY? In THIS state where it takes ten years to build your own park even if you're willing to pony up your own money to build it?
Dream a little dream and while you're at it, why not call up Halle Berry and see if she'd be willing to go out on a date with moi.
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you said it Rich, it takes quite awhile before an arena could be built, so IF the new owner wants to move to SF he should start now to open it up by 2017. Besides the many pluses to SF the arena would also cut down on the visiting players commute to games, as a vast majority, if not all teams already stay in San Francisco when in the Bay Area to play the Warriors
ReplyDeleteI don't want the Warriors to leave Oakland because I think they would lose many of their passionate fans and pick up a bunch of the indifferent "I'm here for the scene and the experience" type of fans you see at AT&T Park these days. (Say what you want about the Giants years at Candlestick, but those crowds were truly intimidating, and the AT&T crowds are not.) Bruce Jenkins wrote yesterday in the Chron that he wouldn't mess with the dynamic that is going on at Oracle. Take yesterday's game for instance. The team is going nowhere and they have the third worst record in the NBA, and there was noise inside the arena last night like the Warriors were playing in the finals.
ReplyDeleteOne thing to note, however, is that if it costs $100 to $150 million to get out of the Oracle lease, a move to the City in to new arena probably increases the franchise's value at least that much, and probably more. And a lot more corporate money would flow in to a SF-based team. That is just reality, as much as I wish it wasn't so. I have no doubt that if the new ownership group can put an arena deal together in SF, with the help of the Giants who have control of that parking lot next to AT&T, they will happily pay the penalty for an early termination on the Oracle lease.
I'm a long-time Oakland resident and I would hate to lose the Warriors because I feel they belong to our community, but I'll root for them if they are in the City. My dad grew up in West Portal and used to be a ball-boy at games in the 1960's when they played under chandeliers at the Civic Auditorium. I've been going to games since the 1970's, and really got hooked on the early 80's teams with World "I've never seen a shot I didn't like" Free, Bernard King, & Co. And of course, 3-Pt specialist Joe Hassett, coming in to the games late to try to bring us back from an inevitable deficit. Good memories...