Golden State Warriors Break Ground on $1 Billion Chase Center

SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — The morning after crushing their rival Cleveland Cavaliers 126-91 in a rematch of last year’s NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors celebrated another victory Tuesday after they broke ground on their new, $1 billion arena, the Chase Center.

Set to open for the 2019-20 season, Warriors front office brass, along with head coach Steve Kerr, Kevin Durant and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Mission Bay neighborhood.

Construction of the arena is being funding entirely by private money, the 11-acre project includes an 18,000-seat venue and 600,000 square feet of office space, as well as a new 5.5-acre public park. The arena was approved by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in 2015, but had been stalled by litigation and design issues ever since. But earlier Tuesday, the California Supreme Court declined to review the case, giving owner team owner Joe Lacob the go-ahead to proceed with the project.

Kerr highlighted the fact, as mentioned, that the arena is being built entirely with private funding. That means no tax dollars will be spent on the construction or planning of the Chase Center.

“(That is) a tremendous financial risk, almost unheard of these days in professional sports,” Kerr said. “The best way to mitigate that risk is to put a really good team on the floor.”

“This is an incredible franchise that has only begun to scratch the surface,” Kerr said.

The site is near the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center and the UCSF Benoiff Children’s Hospital. Team president Rick Welts thanked members from both during his remarks, but several of the university’s employees and hospital patients have been skeptical of the environmental impacts of the Chase Center’s construction in the Mission Bay neighborhood.

The Mission Bay Alliance, one of the main opponents of the arena’s construction, is comprised of UCSF donors, doctors and stakeholders who have contended the Chase Center will impede access to the hospital and increase noise and air pollution.

It was that group’s lawsuit that the state supreme court killed on Tuesday, effectively clearing the way for construction.

Many postings on the team’s Facebook page worry that the move across the Bay from its home in Oakland will result in ticket price hikes, traffic and parking nightmares and the loss of the current arena’s special, boisterous atmosphere. The Warriors have been playing home basketball games in the East Bay for more than four decades.