Foundation for success
Warriors’ new arena is the key to building NBA dynasty
SAN FRANCISCO – Steve Kerr is sitting in his new office.
There is no ceiling, just the blue sky over Mission Bay and seagulls that make their way from the Chase Center construction site to the nearby water. There is no finished floor, just a slab of foundation overlooking the 26-foot hole in the ground where his Golden State Warriors practice court will be in
18 months.
But what there is — after seven months in which 450 workers dug up
300,000 cubic yards of dirt, erected more than 1,300 piles and adhered to a
200-page playbook to keep this $1 billion, privately financed facility on schedule for a 2019-20 season opening — is a chance for the down-to-earth Kerr to try a few one-liners.
“I forgot to tell you guys, I want a bigger office,” Kerr says with a smile to the two foremen who are leading this tour. “So if you could just start over? Thanks.”
The team’s longtime media relations man, Raymond Ridder, chimes in, “This is probably where you’ll be fired.” “No question,” Kerr says with a grin. You can joke like this when you’re the best team around and have won two titles in the past three seasons and the only thing threatening your would-be dynasty is the mountain of money it will take to keep all these future Hall of Famers on the roster. That, as the Warriors well know, is where the building itself becomes the ultimate X factor for in their future.
The numbers are mind-numbing. The Warriors’ combined payroll projections between this season and 2020-21 are set to be an unprecedented $1.1 billion, passing the eight-figure price tag on the arena itself.
It’s the kind of economic reality that rival teams hope short-circuits this Warriors’ run, the last, great hope that the “Super Villains” core of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green will be broken up. Except for one thing: Their Death Star, this 11-acre entertainment district that will help owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber balance their books with concerts and shows, doesn’t have a fatal flaw.
“It’s the absolute foundation for our success for — I would argue — decades to come, because it ensures that we’re going to be competitive financially with any other team in the league,” said Warriors President Rick Welts, who has spent recent years shepherding this project while navigating political minefields and, he estimates, taking part in more than 500 arena-related meetings. “Even under this new collective bargaining agreement, the numbers are getting kind of eye-popping, if they weren’t already, in terms of what it’s going to take financially to field a championship-caliber team. And I think our view is that it ensures this future for as far into the future as we can see.”
As Kerr is the first to note, these are first-world problems of the highest order. This is the first time he has seen the progress since a groundbreaking cere-
mony in January with dancing forklifts and Cirque du Soleil-style dancers dressed as construction workers.
“How are those guys doing on the job, by the way?” Kerr quips.
Kerr — hardhat, yellow jacket, protective glasses, gloves and all — is equal parts impressed and amused by the lavishness.
During a tour of one of the luxurious bunker suites, a space bigger than most San Francisco apartments and with a sticker price as high as $2.25 million, the 52-year-old Southern California native deadpans, “It reminds me of when my Dad used to take my brother and I to the Dodgers game, sitting in those leftfield bleachers with our jug of lemonade. It’s so similar ...”
When the viewing party moves to a second model of a suite, the type that will be located in the lower bowl of the 18,064-capacity building and be bought by the wealthiest of corporations, the outspoken opponent of President Trump says of the exorbitant cost, “That’s OK. With the new tax plan, they can afford it ...”
But based on the rules of today’s NBA and the fact that the Warriors are headed for massive luxury tax bills if they give maximum-salary contracts to Durant, Thompson and Green when they can become free agents in the next three summers, this is what it takes to stay on top. And jokes aside, this isn’t the kind of joy ride anyone wants to hop off of — least of all Kerr.
“I love what I do, so I keep doing it,” Kerr says when asked about dealing with pain from a botched back surgery in 2015. “Coaching is actually helpful, and it’s no secret that I still deal with a lot of pain. But it’s not like I’m going to walk away because of it. I love what I do. I love coaching. I love being around the guys, and I’ve just had to learn how to kind of manage my life. So that’s what I’m doing.”
Kerr, who told The Athletic in October there are plans to extend his contract next summer, clearly expects to be here when the Chase Center opens.
Long before this visit, when assistant general manager Kirk Lacob was making sure the coaching staff had a say in the building strategy, Kerr made a few specific requests that were ultimately granted.
“How the courts were going to be angled, (like) which way, and based on the lines (of sight), and how many hoops (there would be),” he explained.
“There were a few details that I felt strongly about it. The balcony (overlooking the court). We have a lot of visitors to practice — coaches. And we wanted access for people to come in and visit and watch without being able to go downstairs.”
As Kerr learned, though, the nonWarriors components make this move from Oracle Arena in Oakland work. The 588,000 square feet of office buildings that will house companies such as Uber, or the 100,000 square feet of restaurant retail that, as Welts said, is filling the “budget hole in what otherwise wouldn’t be doable if you were to just build an arena.”
It is, like it or not, the key to their continued dominance.
“Two championships, three Finals (in a row), and now a brand-new building, it is pretty remarkable,” Kerr said during the drive back over the Bay Bridge. “I didn’t see the championships (when he decided to take the job in 2014), but I saw the aspirations of the organization. I saw the dreams that Bob and Joe and Peter really laid out, and I knew they were real. I felt that when I took the job, and I was hoping we could do big things. But when they actually happen, it’s like ‘Wow.’ ”