The Golden State Warriors have released new renderings of their planned San Francisco waterfront arena, which show off … well, mostly how pretty San Francisco is with its bridges and fog and whatnot. Since final designs almost never bear much resemblance to early sketches, far more interesting to me is this article about how it might be financed. (Even though it points to the Brooklyn Nets arena as an example of a privately funded arena, which, um, not.) After much speculation about naming rights and corporate sponsorships, it presents this quote from Warriors CEO Joe Lacob:
“We are pleased to be privately financing the arena – with no money from the City’s general fund and no new taxes – and look forward to providing an incredible entertainment experience for Bay Area fans.”
If you closely follow stadium and arena deals, that phrasing should put a chill into your heart. “No money from the City’s general fund and no new taxes” is carefully phrased to omit one possible subsidy: existing taxes that aren’t from the city’s general fund. Add in team execs’ previous statements that they hope to recoup their money via rent credits and other givebacks, and I’d bet dollars to donuts that the Warriors are going to be looking for some sort of TIF.
It may not be a huge amount of money — as I’ve noted before, San Francisco is maybe the one market large and arena-starved enough that a new building could make enough money to pay back a large private investment. But it’s definitely a warning sign that San Franciscans should be watching the financing of this plan very, very closely, and not be distracted by pretty pictures.
It’s San Francisco. The resistance to public funding will be greater than normal in SF.
However, I bet it will have a much smaller public component than the Seattle Sodo arena. If you think somewhere between the nominal amount AT&T received and the amount Sodo will receive, I think you’d be about right.
Given what happened in Indy, Orlando, Memphis and other cities (like New York), I now count under 30% public participation to be a win. Maybe my standards have sunk too low.
You need to see that area now to understand. A project there would make a complete project from the Golden Gate to AT&T. It’s already pretty nice, except for this one area.
They’re not trying to turn a dive city into Paris. They’re trying to finish the waterfront project.