Kaiser pays big to help Warriors’ plaza ‘thrive’

Kaiser Permanente isn’t saying how much it’s paying the Golden State Warriors to call the area around the team’s new San Francisco arena Thrive City for the next 20 years — but according to an internal document obtained by The Chronicle, the total for the naming rights and other costs could hit $295 million.

In addition to the naming rights for the plaza and park adjacent to Chase Center in Mission Bay, the deal calls for the nonprofit health care giant to become the team’s official health care provider and jointly engage in community projects.

The minutes of a Kaiser Foundation finance committee meeting at the Four Seasons hotel

in San Francisco on Dec. 1, 2016, show that the panel approved pursuing “a new sponsorship arrangement with the Golden State Warriors in an amount not to exceed $295.58 million.”

John Nelson, vice president of communications for Kaiser Permanente, said that was the most Kaiser would pay. He wouldn’t say exactly what the final total might be.

That “will ultimately depend on whether various optional components are included or declined, over the 20-year period. It’s possible the final figure could be much less than that upper limit,” Nelson said.

The centerpiece of the deal is christening the plaza surrounding Chase Center as Thrive City, after Kaiser’s “Thrive” health and wellness slogan.

The minutes also outlined “key components” of how the partnership and Thrive City could benefit Kaiser, including: “Amplifying” Kaiser’s commitment to “total health.” Increasing Kaiser’s “visibility as clinical experts as the Warriors team physicians.” Expanding Kaiser’s marketing benefits “into a new innovative setting.”

According to the minutes, the finance committee “had an extensive discussion on marketing, valuation and community benefits” before recommending that Kaiser pursue the deal.

Kaiser Permanente, which is headquartered in Oakland, is one of the nation’s largest health care providers, with more than 12.2 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia.

In May, Kaiser and the Warriors announced a 20-year partnership that included Kaiser replacing Stanford as the team’s official doctors, the opening of a sports medicine center and the naming of the plaza as Thrive City.

Nelson said that of the deal’s cost to Kaiser, expenses “associated with Thrive City would be about $2.5 million a year.”

“It is not a typical sports sponsorship agreement,” Nelson said. “Even the marketing and business components to this agreement focus on promoting health and supporting the community.”

He added that “Thrive City will be a community gathering space that provides a slate of yearround health and wellness programming and local events such as walks and marathons, and get-fit clinics, yoga sessions, farmers markets, health screenings, flu clinics, ice skating and much more.”

The Warriors Community Foundation and Kaiser Permanente also partnered up on Generation Thrive, which Nelson described as an “initiative that aims to lift up at-risk youth in the community.” Its headquarters will be in the Warriors’ current practice facility in Oakland.

Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents Kaiser mental health care workers, doesn’t buy Kaiser’s pitch.

“It’s outrageous for a nonprofit health care provider to secretly spend millions of its patients’ premium dollars on a sports stadium advertising deal,” Rosselli said.

Rosselli’s union is in a drawn-out contract fight with Kaiser over what the union describes as long wait times for patients seeking mental health care. The union wants Kaiser to hire more staff.

“They are spending all this money to enhance their visibility, but not spending it on mental health for patients,” Rosselli said.

Big-bucks partnerships between nonprofit health giants and pro sports teams are common in the Bay Area, but the finances behind the deals are rarely if ever revealed.

For example, Blue Shield of California and and Dignity Health each own Levi’s Stadium luxury suites. Kaiser’s “Thrive City” deal does not include any luxury suites for the nonprofit at Chase Center.

Dignity is also the 49ers’ exclusive health industry sponsor at Levi’s Stadium, with advertisements both inside and outside of the stadium. There is even a Dignity Health Plaza in one corner of the $1.2 billion stadium.

And Dignity was one of the biggest partners with the Giants when the team built its waterfront park in 2000. It also operates a health clinic located on the ballpark’s port walk.

Such deals are “a positive for both the team and the health care organizations,” said sports business consultant Andy Dolich.

“They can expand into a whole demographic from cradle to grave. Plus, sports medicine is growing at a significant rate, with younger kids going into sports.

“You are talking about health and fitness. It’s cool. It’s hip,” Dolich said. “It’s a lifestyle sponsorship, which you don’t necessarily get in a lot of other areas.”

And at a healthy price.