San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is putting a full-court press on the Golden State Warriors, with a direct appeal to owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber. In a letter hand-delivered by Lee himself, he urges the Warriors to build a new home in San Francisco "in time for the 2017 NBA season" and says "San Francisco offers significant advantages" that no other city can match.
San Francisco's proposed site is a sports and entertainment facility on the waterfront.
"Friendly competition, I love Chuck Reed and Mayor Lee, but I plan to keep all three teams," Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said.
Quan says she believes her plan to build a new "Coliseum City" for the A's, Raiders and Warriors will win out in the end.
"Coliseum City is probably one of the most exciting ideas in a long time," Quan said.
The Warriors reiterated the position they took last December, saying, "We appreciate the outreach exhibited by Mayor Lee and other City officials as they continue to show their enthusiasm and interest in the Warriors building a new state-of-the-art multi-purpose arena in San Francisco. At this point, we continue our due diligence in exploring all potentials sites in the Bay Area."
"Oakland is the actual center of the Bay Area, not San Francisco," Chris Dobbins said.
Dobbins heads Save Oakland Sports, an East Bay group trying to keep all three Oakland teams in Oakland.
"We have BART right here, we have Amtrak, a lot of good public transportation," Dobbins said. "If you look at the East Bay, the population center, and Oakland's right in the middle. We have great weather, albeit not today, but it's the best viable place for the Warriors to stay."
All this comes as Oakland's been told by the state it must return $3.5 million in redevelopment funds; money city leaders were hoping to use for planning "Coliseum City."
