The Golden State Warriors can’t win ‘em all.
An arbitrator sided against the Bay Area NBA team in its dispute with the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda over debt incurred to renovate Oracle Arena, the team’s current home in Oakland.
With the team set to move across the Bay for new digs in San Francisco next season, the team and its landlords at the Oakland-Alameda County Stadium Authority had clashed on the meaning of language in the team’s lease agreement to occupy Oracle, which was originally signed in 1996. The Warriors had argued the team wasn’t obligated to pay any debt remaining once the team decamps to San Francisco next year, while the Coliseum authority, represented by a team at Keker, Van Nest & Peters, argued that the team owed the full price of the renovation bill, an amount the municipalities pegged at about $55 million.
On Monday, following a three-day hearing in July and closing arguments in September, JAMS arbitrator Rebecca Westerfield found that the team is financially responsible for payments on the debt incurred during the renovations.
The Keker, Van Nest & Peters team representing the Coliseum Authority in its arbitration with the Warriors included Daniel Purcell, Leah Pransky, and Eduardo Santacana.
Read the full report here.