Category: Golden State Warriors

by Jerry Feitelberg

SAN FRANCISCO–After releasing sketches of their latest design for the new arena at Mission Bay that looked like a drawing of a toilet with the seat cover down the Golden State Warriors are considering going back to the drawing board. The roof of the area would resemble the lid of a seat and the shape of the arena looked like a toilet.

Where the bracket of the toilet seat goes that would be where the Warriors would build a Bay Front Terrace that would be 135 feet high level to the rest of the seat or arena span at the same height at 135 feet high. There would be two office labs for UCSF those buildings would be taller than the arena at 160 feet each.

Warrior spokesman PJ Johnston said that the renderings were not the final design and that the Warriors were considering a “different look” after the out pouring of commentary of it’s porcelain like looks.

The drawing was meant to give an idea what the configurations would look like to simulate traffic conditions. Sounds like a good excuse to make it all look good but this ones by the sound of it is headed down the drain. Some major sports publications and sports networks namely ESPN and Sports Illustrated had some half jokingly comments about the design and the Warriors knew it was time to look at a new design.

Johnston said that once somthing like this gets on the internet it spread like wildfire, “I guess that’s the perils of the internet” but Johnston said that the design will change in the coming months. Traffic has been the main concern for the Warriors and the Mission Bay neighborhood. So the Warriors wanted some design to go with the streets and how it would work for traffic.

As far as transportation and traffic is concern there has been a question as to the Warriors new arena being a quagmire for traffic much like Levis Stadium in Santa Clara has been. The plan is to run light rail from Caltrain at Fourth and Townsend towards Mission Bay. The T line currently runs only one train to Mission Bay from downtown and only uses one car.

That will change once the arena is up and running and the City plans to run double T line cars out to the arena, under the current schedule the trains run anywhere from 15-30 minutes apart. This will have to change even on non game nights because the demand for transportation will be increased due to more medical professionals and students moving into the UCSF Mission Bay neighborhood and that’s nothing to flush at.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the new arena developments for the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg

SACRAMENTO–The scrum continues between three Sacramentans and the City of Sacramento as opponents who recently filed an appeals case in front of the same judge who threw out that last set of appeals from the last case argued that subsidies that finance the new Kings arena at Downtown Plaza were done with the public funds that were illegal subsidies. Three Sacramentans filed arguements in Sacramento Superior Court saying that the funding of the arena is illegal and wasteful. The opponents in the appeals case also restated that funding from taxes from Sacramento owned garages should not be used to pay for the new arena.

Sacramento Kevin Johnson said after the opponents last appeal was thrown out by Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley that this was the last hurdle of any road block to stop the new arena from coming through. Then came last week and the opponents argued again about subsidies and the waste part of the lawsuit was the funding coming from the garages. The city argues that the garages are worthless and shouldn’t be counted as part of the subsidy arguement and they can be fixed up to be useful.

Frawley who threw out two previous arguments has allowed the arguements of “illegal and wasteful” and “abuse of discretion” the latter blamed on the Sacramento City Council, to stay as part of the opponents aguments. The Downtown Plaza has already broke ground as of the middle of August and a great majority of the retail outlets at the Plaza have already moved out prior to the ground break. The opponents before and during construction have fought as far back into last year to stop construction of the Kings arena.

They’ve primarly argued on environmental issues such as post game traffic, noise and pollution of exhaust and for displacing neighbors that have paid for affordable housing for decades in neighboring hotels by forced moves to convert the area and hotels into condos or luxury hotels. Frawley in the previous appeals case ruled that the subsidy sheets were not binding and that the opponents arguments were not going to stop the new arena because the opponents were not able to demonstrate that the subsidies were illegal or wasteful.

The opponents this time around are arguing that they can demonstrate that the financial terms of any balance sheet entered by the city does not legitimately allow the city to use such funding as the garages to pay for the new arena and that monies also used from the city general fund was not suppose to be used for paying for the construction of the Kings new arena. The city’s share of the cost of the new Kings arena is $255 million and the Kings will put in $222 million.

Opponents are arguing also about the large portion of the bonds that will pay for the arena from the city’s coffers and want a list of why the city should use public funds to pay for the arena and where and how it’s going to be paid. The Mayor’s office has said that the opposition has been down this road before and have been overruled twice by the same judge (Frawley) but understand that the opponents are entitled to due process under the law to appeal once again the arguement of the public subsidies.

Frawley will continue to hear further arguemnents of this case by opponents on December 12th regarding the merits of the case. With this being the opponents third appeal the plan to make the challenges of the subsidy funding the core of their case like “illegal and wasteful” and “abuse and discretion” the opponents intend to turn the tide on stopping the new arena that already is underway for construction. The NBA has said that the arena must be ready to go by fall of 2017 or the Kings will have to move to another city.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the new arena developments for the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg

SACRAMENTO–Downtown plaza the future home of the Sacramento Kings new arena has the L Street mall shutdown for construction. Most of the plaza stores in the mid part of the mall are shut down. Plans for L Street include buildings that will be office occupied and retail that will serve the nearby arena. One buyer in the neighborhood Trinity Pacific Partners bought 555 Capital Mall an entire city block a 380,000 foot space that has two connected offices that is 14 stories that already has retail and stores on the street level.

The block also has parking that is right across the street that features 791 spaces for parking. The ideal situation when the Kings start play at the arena for the fall of 2016. Currently the building has a 60 percent occupation rate that contains law and accounting firms. Trinity is invloved with business partners Buzz Oates LLC, AM Investors and Rubicon Partners as a group they remodled the Forum building at Ninth and K Streets and the Citizen Hotel at 10th and J Streets.

Purchase price was not available through public records, Trinity has plans for the towers to fill the empty office space and they most likely will succeed when the new arena is up and running and downtown office space will be at a premium with many companies ready to rent the space that would attract businesses who will come down to see the newly refurbished neighborhood.

With Downtown Plaza demoed there are already takers waiting to move into the new buildings in anticipation of the Kings new arena, Kipp Blewett from the firm Ribicon Partners plan to operate and lease the building and there are big plans with retail and businesses already lining up to move in.

The mere excitment of the Kings moving downtown has the locals excited to get business going and there will be a lot of improvements and new looks to downtown the these buildings being remodeled will according to Blewett have more boutique firms. Michael Ault of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership said the new arena will bring economic benefits “everything that we had talked about in the way of momentum from the arena project is starting to come together.”

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the new arena developments for the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg

SAN FRANCISCO–Guess what Piers 30-32 the former planned arena location for the Golden State Warriors is all about? It’s about to fall into San Francisco Bay unless someone comes forward with $87 million to prevent the foundation of the pier from an eventual collapse and do a nice fixer upper for the project. Proposition B which passed this past June eliminated any hope for the Warriors to build a new state of the art arena at the piers.

The measure makes it clear that any new buildings built along the waterfront must be done with San Francisco voters approval. The measure restricts height limits and that pretty much forced the Warriors at the time to find other digs which will be at Mission Bay a good mile from where they wanted to play hoops. The Warriors who met with Mission Bay residents last Thursday unveiled a illustrated look of the arena.

Getting to the new arena will take a little longer at the current stage unless as San Francisco Muni plans to get light rail from the Warriors arena connected on the same line with the Powell Street Metro station.Public transit plays a big role in the Warriors new arena thinking. The City has taken on a lot of sports failures losing the Warriors at Piers 30-32 and losing the San Francisco 49ers to Santa Clara and losing out on Pier 30-32 has not resonated well with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s office.

Lee’s office while all behind Prop B and matter of fact ready to take on the the California State Commission who plans to take the measure to court arguing that the city doesn’t have jurisdiction over the waterfront port not to mention the commission has former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom now California Lt.Governor planning to fight the city.

Lee initially said that if the Warriors build at Piers 30-32 it would be his legacy but the legs of that thought was quickly squashed when Lee saw the number of ballots going to the voters registar’s office to get proposition B on the ballot.

After realizing that Piers 30-32 wasn’t going to work Lee was relieved that the Warriors planned to purchase land and move to Mission Bay. The disscussion is still about Prop B even though the Warriors arena location issue has been resolved. Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison wants to build at the waterfront and at Piers 30-32 hotels and condominums. The Warriors wanted to do that too with the new arena at that location. Lee and City Attorney Dennis Herrera are prepared to fight Newsom and the State Commission on jurisdiction over the port and Herrera has said the city voters have a say about height limits at the Embarcadero.

As Ellison and company knows that won’t happen without voter approval and that’s very unlikely given the waterfront neighborhood already had rejected the arena idea there. The Warriors wanted to build a hotel and condo across the street from the arena. While Piers 30-32 are an ideal location in conjunction with the Embarcadero and nearby Market Street transit. Mission Bay will prove ideal once the light rail hook up is good to go in 2019 the Warriors plan to open their new digs in the 2018 season.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the new arena developments for the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg

SACRAMENTO–Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley made his second major ruling in favor of the Sacramento Kings to start construction on their new arena at Downtown Plaza. The construction was about to face a delay after a recent lawsuit filed by foes opposed to the arena claiming that the new arena would be an act of gentrification and would displace many single occupancy hotel residents in downtown Sacramento.

The ruling by Frawley would clear a path for the arena to start construction but also would force those single occupants to move from their homes in hotels that they stayed in for decades to make way for new buildings in the neighborhood. The foes who learned of their lawsuit loss on Friday had filed the suit under the California Environmental Quality Act. The opposition said that traffic, noise, and pollution issues amongst other complaints were reasons for the suit to get a injunction to block the start of construction for the Kings arena.

Frawley back in Febuary in his first ruling against another opposition group who wanted to place an initiative on last June’s ballot saying that voters should have a vote on whether public funds and building a new arena should be allowed to go forward. The opposition group in this attempt found that that they were caught in a political triangle which went back to Hedge Fund manager Chris Hansen who tried to buy the Kings and move them to Seattle.

Hansen later admitted being behind funding the campaign to put the arena initiative on the ballot. Frawley ruled that the legal language in the initiative was flawed and that the Sacramento Registar of Voters found many discrepancies of unregistared voters who signed documents to get the initiative on the ballot and legal flaws in the language of the ballots were stained. At the time Mayor Kevin Johnson said “I can smell the stench off those ballots” regarding the initiative push.

The opponents lawyer Kelly Smith said in Sacramento Superior Court on Friday to Frawley that the bill that protects new arena projects such as the Kings arena proposal is unconstitutional. The bill was sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg that give teeth to any arena proposal and that any lawsuit trying to block it’s construction could only be successful in the event of a health and saftey issue or if American Native artifacts are threatened.

The state initiative SB743 was signed by California Governor Jerry Brown that stops CEQA lawsuits from injunctions. Opposition after opposition group tried everything to try and halt the construction of the new arena and Frawley had played a key role in ruling in favor of the new arena with stopping some major lawsuits against it’s construction.

The project was originally scheduled to breakground this week but after this latest lawsuit filed the groundbreaking will be recheduled. The Kings new arena is expected to be completed and ready for the NBA season in 2017. The Kings will spend $222 million for their share on the arena project and the city will spend $255 million. The opponents had objected to the city’s use of public subsidies and the use of public parking lots owned by the city to pay back the money barrowed from the general fund another suit that was overruled. Opponents said that the money should have been used towards the arts rather than building a new arena for the Kings.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the new arena developments for the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg and Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SACRAMENTO–Opponents who have filed a environmental lawsuit against the city of Sacramento and the Sacramento Kings over traffic conditions, drunks and rowdy fans in the Downtown Plaza neighborhood, and objections over subsidies which includes city owned parking garages that would pay off the monies barrowed from the general fund to pay for the new Kings arena.

There are two separate law suits filed one from a group led by Caltrans retired director Adriana Saltonstall who is challenging the city and Kings against building the new arena for the above reasons and Saltonstall’s group also is challenging California Governor Jerry Brown’s bill that he signed that makes it harder for opponents to file a lawsuit against new arena construction in the state specifically the new Kings arena. Saltonstall group says that the disallowing or strengthing laws with more teeth in them to prevent filing lawsuits against arena constructions is unconstitutional.

The second opposition group has filed a CEQA suit siting similar issues the cases will be heard in two differents court hearings. The major issue at hand now is the costs that the Kings and the city will incur if the project is delayed there is a laundry list of them and the city is asking the judges in each of the cases for the opponents to pony up $100 million as bond money to cover loss expenses in the event that the Kings and the city win the lawsuits and are allowed to begin construction at Downtown Plaza.

The Kings are scheduled to open the new arena which will seat over 17,000 fans as a smaller scale NBA building the new arena is scheduled to be ready in October 2016. The lawsuit that has been filed can take up the better portion of the year and the scheduled construction for groundbreaking is set for the end of this month. The delay at best could have the new arena ready sometime in early 2017 past the deadline set by the NBA. The NBA has the right to buy the Kings and move them in the event of a schedule delay or if the Kings lose the lawsuit filed by the opponents.

Kings Chief Financial Officer John Rinehart says that the Kings would suffer a tremendous financial hit for any delay to the project and James Moose a prominent Sacramento lawyer told the Sacramento Bee this week that it isn’t uncommon for judges to ask opponents in environmental cases like these with time sensititve constraints for bond money to be held by the court until the case is decided.

There lies the question as to whether or not the opponents have $100 million to forward to the court in bond money until the case is decided and the judge in considering the bond money and is taking into account the financial status of the opponents and the strength of the case. The Kings are about to lose close to $2.5 million in construction loses, the city’s share of loses could mount up to $5.7 million primararly because of street planning and scheduled construction to block the streets from traffic during that time, the Kings have already spent $36 million on buying the Downtown Plaza proper and Kings have shared in the land purchase at $60 million.

If the Kings and the city were to lose the case entirely the Kings and the city would be on the hook for the Downtown Plaza property with the team facing the strong possibility of being forced to leave Sacramento by the NBA. One thing that could be considered in the event any new owner who buys the Kings would absorb the costs and loses at Downtown Plaza which would total $96 million plus the purchase of buying the team.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors new arena developments for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg

SAN FRANCISCO–The State Lands Commission who filed a lawsuit against Proposition B the measure that limits height development on the San Francisco Waterfront argued in the suit that the state owns the land and that the Port of San Francisco is managed by the Port not by the city. The city said that they will aggressively defend the vote of the citizens of San Francisco who passed Prop B.

This is a different school of thought coming from City Hall as previous to the election the Mayor and some members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors wanted to see Propositon B or wanted it off the ballot so that the Warriors could have a chance to build a new arena at Piers 30-32. Just before the measure passed the Warriors bought land at Mission Bay from Salesforce and will start construction on the new arena with planned retail, condos, and hotels at that location.

It was also noted that San Francisco’s populaton has grown from 750,000 to a reported 1 million that figure came out on Tuesday which gives incentive to developers, real estate companies and the Lands Commission to try to overturn Prop B as there is a lot riding on getting B overturned financially. No San Francisco mayor came out for Proposition B current of former except Art Agnos who was a advocate to stop highrise building on the Embarcadero when the Warriors touted the idea of a new arena at Piers 30-32.

Former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who is California Lt Gov is on the Lands Commission with State Controller John Chiang and Finance Director Michael Cohen are set to fight the City and Prop B. The Commission will be in for a fight against the City and San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera who was a supporter of Proposition B and says the city has jurisdiction on how the port is governed, “With (Tuesday’s) lawsuit, the State’s Land Commission seems to have embraced the notion that any local initiative and by extension, any land use regulation by a Board of Supervisors or Planning Commission affecting Port property is barred by the state and therefore invalid.” said Herrera

Ironically some of the people that Newsom will be going up against to overturn Prop B are the very people who worked for him when he was Mayor. It’s a different turn of events as the strategy to get measure B overturned will take it’s legal twists and angles in this lawsuit, “while the commission respects the power of the initiative as it relates to local and municipal affairs, when it comes to the management of state property including public trust land, the Legislature has specifically delegated the management resposibility for those lands to the San Francisco Port Commission.” said Jennifer Lucchesi an executive officer for the Port Commission.

Piers 30-32 was offered up to George Lucas and Lucas Light and Industries after the Warriors were turned away by the waterfront neighborhood but Lucas who was looking at three cities to move to which included San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago didn’t want to sort through San Francisco politics anymore after being forced to move out of the Presidio where his offices were located selected Chicago. Lucas could have moved to Piers 30-32 without the problems the Warriors had to face but left for the Windy City anyway.

Herrera meanwhile said he plans to defend Proposition B tooth and nail to protect Waterfront development, “That view (Lucchesi and the Commission) represents a radical departure in law and practice from land use decision making in San Francisco and elsewhere. While the city must certainly honor it’s obligations as trustee in managing public trust property, it is a legally and practically untenable position to argue that San Francisco’s voters and elected officials have no direct say over how our City’s waterfront is developed” said Herrera.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the new arena developements for the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by David Zizmor

LeBron James return to the Cleveland Cavaliers will also be a homecoming as he’s from Akron Ohio. LeBron played seven seasons with the Cavs. The main reason why LeBron signed with the Cavs is he saw the writing on the wall, the Miami roster based in the finals in San Antonio LeBron saw they were going to have a tough time being competitive even in the Eastern Conference given the players that they have the Heat went out and picked a couple of players in case LeBron wouldn’t come back.

A mural in Miami that depicts the entire Heat team was defaced, just LeBron’s face only and talk shows in Miami were the abuzz about how fans would respond to LeBron leaving Miami for Cleveland. It’s almost like the time when he left Cleveland the first time, the fans feel like they were stabbed in the heart.

The Heat’s Dwayne Wade is a shadow of his former self, four years ago LeBron signed with the Heat and Wade was still a superstar and a starting player in the All-Star game and people wondered if Wade and LeBron could co-exist and frankly in the first month or two that was the big problem.

Wade had trouble giving up the ball conceding that LeBron was the better player and it made for an adjustment in the first couple months in November last season in Miami. Eventually that problem went away and the Heat won more consecutive championship series. In this last one you kind of saw Wade was on the downside of his career. If you look at it Wade sat out a lot of games and when he sat it allowed him to rest and be fresh in the playoffs.

Wade’s defense was a liability in the finals and his defense was awful and he wasn’t helping much on the offense side of the game. If LeBron moved back to Miami Wade was going to stay there and Wade still might. The simple fact that Wade is not a superstar and you can’t consider him an NBA top ten player. At Miami they have multiple top players and Wade doesn’t fit the bill anymore.

The Cleveland roster has a lot of young players on it who are on the upswing and they aren’t so expensive and they can add pieces to help them be title contenders. They have, Tristan Thompson, Anderson Varejao, Dion Waiters, Andrew Wiggins who was taken in the draft and Anthony Bennett. There is a lot of talent on the Cavs that can help Cleveland become top dog in the Eastern Conference.

Now the question is would they become a good enough team to beat San Antonio? Who knows at this point. When LeBron was there in his first run with the Cavs 2003-04 (rookie year) he help take them to the NBA Finals and they lost and that roster was worse than the one he’s on now.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for http://www.sportsradioservice.com