The NBA's San Francisco Warriors played in San Francisco for nine seasons before relocating to Oakland, California, in 1971 and renaming themselves the Golden State Warriors. Their new home was the Oakland Alameda County Arena—a $24 million, 13,000-seat facility built in 1966. In 1997, a $121 million renovation expanded the facility to 20,000 seats; in 2007, it was renamed Oracle Arena. The Warriors won three NBA Championships in 1975, 2015, and 2017 in that facility. Despite playing in the oldest arena in the NBA, the Warriors' success on the court led to a season ticket waiting list of approximately 40,000 fans. 

Oracle Arena is owned by the joint city–county governmental agency called the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority (OACCA). The city and county taxpayers covered the original arena construction cost and in 1996 issued $140 million in construction bonds for the renovation. That year the Warriors signed a 20-year lease that included paying $1.5 million for rent as well as the first $7.4 million of the team's premium seating revenue to the OACCA. The OACCA retained 5% of each ticket sold, a portion of the naming rights, parking revenue, and concession revenue. The OACCA share of annual ticket revenue tripled to $6.5 million in the period between 2011 and 2016 as the Warriors' popularity grew. 

The OACCA also covered costs including maintenance and operation of the arena, some game-day production and marketing expenses, and approximately $22 million for the principal and interest on the loan. In 2016, the OACCA required contributions of $11 million from both the city and the county to balance its budget. In 2012, the Warriors announced their intention to leave Oracle Arena and build a new facility on the waterfront in San Francisco. After years of opposition and ballooning costs, the team altered its plans and in April 2014 paid a reported $250 million to purchase a different plot of land south of the San Francisco Giants' AT&T Park. After several years of lawsuits from a local hospital concerned with arena crowds reducing patient and ambulance access, a ground-breaking ceremony for the arena took place in January 2017. 

The 11-acre development built and owned by the Warriors encompasses the 18,000-seat Chase Center arena, 100,000 square feet of retail space, and 580,000 square feet of office space. Half of the office space has already been rented out by ride-sharing firm Uber, and JPMorgan Chase paid $300 million over 20 years for the naming rights. Despite excitement about the new arena, the Warriors are responsible for the $1 billion cost. Arenas need to book events 200 or more days per year to break even. When the Chase Center opens in 2019, it will compete to fill those 200 dates with other local arenas, including the newly abandoned Oracle Arena in Oakland, the 80-year-old Cow Palace south of San Francisco, and the SAP Center 45 miles away in San Jose. Notably, there are no other large, modern arenas within San Francisco, leading some to suggest the Chase Center will have the upper hand in booking events. As evidence of the Warriors' hopes for high profit potential, two years before opening the facility the team announced that prices for suites will range from $525,000 to $2.5 million in the Chase Center, whereas they cost only $200,000 to $300,000 at Oracle Arena. Back in Oakland, Oracle Arena will see its average of 110 events per years decrease by about 50 because of the loss of the Warriors games. In addition, there will still be approximately $55 million remaining to be paid on the bonds that the OACCA issued in 1996.

Questions for Discussion

1. From a finance perspective, why did the Warriors allocate $1 billion to build a new arena?

2. Which new revenue streams might the Warriors generate that could cover the cost of the new arena?

3. Which specific risks do the Warriors face in taking on the full cost of the project?

4. Which specific risks does the OACCA face in paying off the principal and interest on its existing bonds?

5. If the Warriors used bonds to finance a portion of the new arena's costs, which criteria would lenders use to evaluate their ability to repay the loan?