OAKLAND — Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan is demanding the Golden State Warriors pay up before they leave for San Francisco.
As previously reported, the Warriors and the Coliseum authority are at odds over the debt remaining from the 1996 renovations at Oracle Arena. Warriors officials have said the team should not pay what’s left — estimated to be $40 million — once the team moves across the bay for the 2019-20 season.
The dispute is headed to an arbitration hearing scheduled in July.
In a letter sent Sunday to team President and Chief Operating Officer Rick Welts, Kaplan called on the Warriors to resolve the issue before the arbitration hearing by agreeing to pay the debt. Publicly-owned Oracle Arena and the Coliseum are operated by the Coliseum authority, a board comprised of Oakland council members and Alameda County supervisors.
“This threatens the taxpayers of Oakland and Alameda County, who would then be left to foot the Warriors bill,” Kaplan wrote. “I recognize that you have already announced that you are leaving Oakland and moving into a newly built facility in San Francisco. While the move on its own will cause economic harm and job loss to Oakland and Alameda County, I am writing today about the even greater harmful effects that the people of Oakland and Alameda County would endure, should the Warriors not pay the debt they owe.”
Kaplan, who is Oakland’s at-large council member, has also started an online petition.
“I am asking you to still believe in Strength in Numbers, and in your reputation of community service, by promising to fully pay the debt on the arena,” Kaplan wrote. “Let us, instead of having this strife, unite together, as we are all warriors, and must work to protect all of our community.”
A Warriors spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.