Revenues from the Warriors' renovated arena "could fall
more than" $20M short of the "amount needed to cover annual
bond payments and arena expenses during the next 10 years,"
according to a report prepared for the Oakland-Alameda
County Coliseum Authority and cited by Renee Koury of the
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. The issue of whether the team or the
city and county "should cover any financial gap" in the
$140M Warriors deal "has become a sticking point in the
negotiations for a contract giving" team Owner Chris Cohan's
Warriors Arena Management (WAM) control of the arena. The
contract proposal "was pulled at the last minute from the
Coliseum authority's agenda Thursday." Under a proposed 30-
year deal, WAM would run the arena and pay bond debt on the
renovated facility. But Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb
said that because WAM is "separate from the team and worth
just" $500,000, the city and county would have "little
recourse if it failed to pay" the arena bills. Team General
Counsel Robin Baggett said the team "may voluntarily cover a
shortfall, but we will not guarantee it contractually."
Some Oakland city execs "are insisting the Warriors
management agreement should protect the public" from
covering the shortfall. The report said that the city and
county "are better off letting the Warriors run the Arena,
projecting deficits" of $30M-$34M over 10 years if the
Coliseum manages the arena itself (MERCURY NEWS, 1/30).
