Warriors co-Owners Peter Guber and Joe Lacob met with S.F. Mayor Ed Lee yesterday "to further discuss moving the basketball team to San Francisco to play in an arena at Piers 30-32," according to Knight & Cabanatuan of the S.F. CHRONICLE. Unlike the S.F. City Hall's "rejection" by the 49ers, this time "the wooing seems to be mutual." The Warriors have hired Strada Investment Group, led by Jesse Blout, former deputy chief of staff under Mayor Gavin Newsom, and Michael Cohen, previous Dir of the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development. The team has also hired P.J. Johnston, former press secretary for Mayor Willie Brown, and Nathan Ballard, former press secretary for Newsom, "to serve as spokesmen." Knight & Cabanatuan write, "In other words, the team has hired a group that knows City Hall inside out and has close ties to Lee and other officials" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 5/16). In Oakland, Matthew Artz notes city officials have "reiterated their belief that the team would be better served building a new arena adjacent to its current home, which has prime freeway and BART access." Oakland recently launched a $3.5M study on a "plan to transform the Coliseum complex into a sports and entertainment center with restaurants, hotels, shops and new, privately financed facilities for the A's, Raiders and Warriors." The Coliseum City proposal, which would be the nation's "largest privately financed sports complex, has not yet won public support from Oakland's three teams or private investors" (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 5/16).
