Warriors settle on parade bill
The Golden State Warriors said Thursday they will pay Oakland nearly $800,000 for costs associated with their June championship parade after weeks of contentious back-and-forth between the city and team over the bill.
The Warriors had agreed in advance to pay for the costs of the parade — including police overtime and landscaping repair — and the city estimated that would amount to $300,000. But the city in July sent the Warriors a bill for more than $1 million.
Since then, the two sides have disputed what ought to be in the bill.
The final agreed-upon figure of $786,988 does not include costs pertaining to the 2015 victory parade — some $244,278 — which the cash-strapped city had tacked on an initial invoice.
The Warriors said in a statement that they were disappointed by the process. The team noted that it had covered all production costs associated with the 2015 and 2017 parades — the stage, floats, microphones, buses, confetti, posters — totaling about $6 million.
“Most American cities cover the majority of the expenses associated with victory parades,” the War-
riors said.
City officials released a statement saying they were grateful that the Warriors “made good on their public promise,” referring to a pledge team co-owner Joe Lacob told a sea of fans at the parade stage along Lake Merritt Boulevard that he would cover the city’s expenses.
“Few professional franchises can boast such a commitment to their home city,” the city said.
That commitment includes covering such expenses as public works crews, firefighters, food, water, equipment and other supplies. City officials have said that costs were higher than the estimated $300,000 because of additional security and police deployed in the wake of terror attacks overseas in which vehicles plowed into crowds.
Oakland city officials said they were grateful that the Warriors “made good on their public promise.”
Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov