San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Victories for new arena add to Warriors’ wins
The Golden State Warriors continue their off-the-court winning streak, the latest being city approval for a giant rooftop sign and mega-TV screen over the entrance of the team’s new Mission Bay arena.
After some back and forth with the team’s neighbors at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, the San Francisco Commission on Community Investment and Infrastructure voted unanimously last week to approve the 68-by-38-foot “video board” that will hang over the arena’s Third Street entrance facing the public plaza.
“We can use it for traffic and event updates, education, art — even things like movie nights in the plaza,” Warriors spokesman P.J. Johnston
said.
While NBA contracts might prevent the Warriors from telecasting games being played inside the arena, the team might show out-of-town games or even other sporting events — at least, Johnston said, “that’s the kind of thing we are hoping for.”
The deal, of course, also allows for advertising event sponsors, but that is limited to between two hours before and one hour after a game, concert or other show.
Plus, the team got the go-ahead to put a lighted Chase Center sign of up to 176 feet by 200 feet across the arena’s rooftop. It won’t be visible from the street, but it will be clear as a bell for the blimp shot.
Meanwhile, the Warriors say that 8 out of 10 season-ticket holders at the team’s current Oracle Arena home who have been pitched so far have bought seats in the new arena, well above the 60 to 65 percent renewal rate that teams moving into new homes have experienced historically.
Roger Noll, sports economist emeritus at Stanford University, said that even with the steep new prices — and seat licenses that cost tens of thousands of dollars apiece — the team appears to be doing just fine, thanks to its winning season.
“You couldn’t time building a new arena any better,” Noll said. “Recruiting Kevin Durant from Oklahoma City was worth every penny, and it’s just apparent because they are going to be able to charge the highest prices in the league and fill the place up.”
As The Chronicle’s Scott Ostler reported recently, a couple of Oracle season-ticket holders learned they would have to pay $600 a game at the new Chase Center Arena, or “$26,400 for the 201920 season, for 41 regularseason games and three preseason games, if you do the math.”
Plus, each seat has a $35,000 one-time “membership” fee.
If prices seem high, however, the Warriors point out that the arena is being financed without taxpayer dollars.
The project, which broke ground 18 months ago, is now more than half complete and on target to open for the 2019-20 NBA season — leaving just one final season of play at Oracle Arena.
Union do’s and don’ts: As elections go, Tuesday’s San Francisco vote was a sharp study in contrasts for the once-powerful Police Officers Association.
For starters, the union’s Proposition H initiative, aimed at rewriting the city’s new Taser policy to make it less restrictive, went down in flames — despite a $430,000 mail, radio and TV campaign mounted by the union.
“They vastly overreached and have positioned themselves as opposing reforms to the point of harming their own credibility,” said former ACLU attorney John Crew, who was active in the anti-H campaign.
More importantly, for the first time in more than 40 years, the union’s pick for mayor — former Supervisor Angela Alioto — didn’t win. She was the only major candidate to fully support the use of Tasers.
“It was definitely not the result that we wanted,” said newly installed POA President Tony Montoya.
“There was a time when we had six solid votes on the Board of Supervisors,” Montoya said. “Now we’re lucky to have two or three on a good day.”
Just as often, the mayors who won with the POA’s backing reciprocated with healthy pay and benefit packages for the rank and file, plus informal consultations with the union leadership over everything from police policy to the selection of police chiefs.
All that changed under the late Mayor Ed Lee in the furor surrounding the fatal police shooting of Mario Woods. The union — which opposed subsequent reform measures on use of force — found itself frozen out of policy discussions, and even no longer invited to mayoral news conferences dealing with police matters.
The capper came when the Lee and the Police Commission — over the objections of the union — opted to go outside the department and bring in Bill Scott from Los Angeles as chief.
By the time the mayoral race was under way, the union’s once-friendly relationship with board President London Breed had soured in the wake of the Woods shooting. And it had no relationship with former state Sen. Mark Leno or Supervisor Jane Kim.
“What can I say, we’re toxic. We know it,” said former POA President Gary Delagnes, who remains an adviser to the union. “But let me ask you — do you think any of those candidates are going to do any of the things they are promising to do about homelessness, car break-ins and public safety?” Montoya, who took over in the midst of this storm, says it’s time for everyone to take a deep breath.
“I’m still for us sticking by our principles,” Montoya said. “But I have a different style — less bombastic, less chestthumping, less spontaneous and more thoughtful in my remarks.”
San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email matierandross@ sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross