The Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA Development League have their home opener tomorrow night in the new downtown arena. I tried to get tickets two weeks ago, but they were already sold out. I am sure the Warriors are quite pleased with that development  As far as I can tell there are still tickets available for all other home games, so it will be interesting to see how long the interest lasts. Overall, the town seems to still be quite excited about seeing some basketball. I will say that the NHL lockout may be playing a role in this. Santa Cruz has a lot of San Jose Sharks fans, as that is the closest major? professional franchise. With no Sharks hockey, D-league B-ball will be a nice replacement.

I got into a bit of a twitter spat/discussion with @WorseThan_Cohan this morning over the proposed moved of the Golden State Warriors D-league team’s move to Santa Cruz. I figured it might be better to get my thoughts on the whole thing in one place and up in this space for all of our 10 readers to see.  The twitter discussion gave me chance to consolidate some thoughts and think about the issue a bit more deeply which I admittedly had not done yet. I made some over-simplifications on twitter and some knee-jerk reactions.

First I need to separate the issue into two parts: (1) my view on it as a fan and (2) my view on it as a Santa Cruzian. Often these two views are completely opposed, which does make the issue difficult and why I may have seemed inconsistent on twitter.

I am a fan of the Golden State Warriors even if it is being a pained fan. The end of the Chris Cohan Era was supposed to bring happiness and optimism and I have to admit that the jubilation wore off pretty fast. But I am just a fan, not a GSW shill, although if Lacob wants to send me a bunch of money I would be more than willing to set any journalistic integrity aside and be a mouth piece.

As a fan I would love to see the D-league Warriors in Santa Cruz. It would give Santa Cruz sports fans, of which there are a ton, a team to root for and something more to do downtown. It is a bonus that the team is associated with the NBA team I root for. From a player development standpoint, which is what the D-league is supposed to be doing, having players be able to practice with the NBA squad and then make the trip to Santa Cruz that evening to play in a game would seem to be a great idea.  I miss professional sports and even a minor league team is exciting.

Brief history of the project where I am sure some important details have been omitted, but the GSW proposed moving their D-league team from North Dakota to Santa Cruz to be closer to the NBA franchise. The proposal was to build a temporary structure to seat ~3000 people. It would be a tent, much like the cirque du soleil shows that travel the country. The City was to provide a loan to the Warriors out of a general fund to build the structure and the Warriors were to put up money for equipment etc. The loan was first reported to be $3.0M. The City was to get money from concessions and the arena would sell beer during games. A basic environmental impact report (EIR) was done including studies on traffic, parking, and noise. Approval was initially given unanimously by the City Council after a public comment session (link to my live tweet of meeting) where comments were evenly split.  If anyone has been to an SC city council meeting or watched one late at night on the community access channel you know that comments are almost always negative and often quite kooky so this seemed like a big deal. Tickets were going to be in the $5-45 range with an average price of $15. T-shirts were printed, press releases went out, season ticket deposits were taken before prices were even finalized, and a Santa Cruz Warriors storefront went up downtown.

People around town seemed to be shocked that the City Council had approved the deal and really excited at having a pro team in town, even if it was a minor league team. Of course this was not unanimous. Students were certainly an excited group, but as was pointed out, students tend not to be invested in their community temporary status and aren’t equal payers into the tax base that made up the loan. However, whenever I stopped by a bar for a beer and to catch a bit of a basketball, baseball or football game the patrons of the bar seemed to be quite positive on the idea. Many of these are the surfer, regulars I referred to on twitter. My inelegant point in bringing up bar regulars (not talking Jury Room or Ye Ol’ Wateringhole here, more like Burger, the Parish or Seabright Brewery etc) is that these people are “the community.” They are the people who have lived in Santa Cruz for a long time and will continue to live here. They are the people who spend their money locally. Do they make up the whole community, no of course not, but they are an important part of it in a way that students cannot be. Honestly I was a little surprised by the reactions and got caught up in it.  Maybe it was the segment of the populations that I was talking to, but the overall attitude was very pro-Warriors. As I said this was not a scientific study and multiple anecdotes doesn’t make data, but this was what I was seeing and hearing in my time in the community.

But then things changed. The loan grew to $4M and may be up to $5M if I can keep things straight (or back down to $4.1M).  The numbers are always changing. Currently, the Warriors are pre-paying some rent and increasing their capital investments, but then getting rent credit for the increase in capital. Confusing right? We are told the increase in costs is due to changes in the design on the structure to reduce noise. Ticket prices were announced and the cheapest tickets were going for $12 with next cheapest at $20 and upwards until they hit $135 a ticket. I had earlier been excited about getting season tickets, but quickly realized I had been priced out. I feel like NBA tickets aren’t all that much more than these tickets. The fact that the Warriors were selling tickets and t-shirts before the deal was ever finalized (it still hasn’t been as of writing) understandably rubbed people the wrong way. The higher than promised ticket prices certainly rubbed me the wrong way and I know it did to others too.

Despite all of this people were still really excited of the prospect of having a D-league team in Santa Cruz. And then yesterday. The Beach Hill Neighborhood Association threatened the City with a lawsuit and all hell broke-out. Closed door meetings were held instead of being open to the public. My knee-jerk reaction (I guess I like that phrase) was to immediately dismiss Beach Hill as crazy. Fair or unfair they have a reputation for opposing any and all growth in Santa Cruz and often doing so through threats or actual frivolous lawsuits that only serve the purpose of delaying and forcing the city to spend money defending themselves. I figured this was just another instance of that. Now I have no idea. Things have taken a turn for the shady with promises already broken (ticket prices, NBA team playing a pre-season game in the venue etc). So does Beach Hill have a point? Maybe.

First I am not a lawyer. I don’t know if the City Council broke the law by expediting the process. It is very obvious though that this project moved much more quickly than most projects with a lot of pushing from the Warriors. City Council has gone so far as to admit that getting the project finished by December is a large part of their focus and decision-making. The Warriors have gone so far as making veiled threats that the project must get final approval with in the next couple of days to move forward. Closed door meeting and the perception of pushing things through before the public knows enough to oppose is certainly a bad thing for the City.

Now is this a good deal for the City or not? Initially I thought it was. It sounded as if the loan risk was quite minimal and the pay-offs were moderate to good, but now I am not so sure. The City admits it is not a money making deal, but they hope to use the project to connect downtown with the beach. Should that be enough to move forward with the deal? Is it a money making deal for the Warriors?

I come into this with my own biases. I do buy into the theory that having more foot traffic in the downtown area in the Winter will be good for businesses that rely heavily on Summer tourist foot traffic to make ends meet. I do buy into the theory that increases in foot traffic lower crime. I think a vibrant, walkable downtown is crucial to a City Center and its community. This project will contribute to all of those things. I certainly would be likely to grab a dinner or a beer downtown before catching a game when I usually avoid downtown for those things now. Downtown can seemingly handle 2800 people without too much effort.  The Derby Girls can use a bigger venue as they sell out all of their matches at the Civic Center, which is just a few blocks from the proposed Warriors site.

I also made the mistake of saying that and EIR report for building a structure in a parking lot was absurd. An EIR, and I knew this, is more than “environmental”. It is also looks at traffic, noise, and crowds. However, at least according to the council meeting I watched those parts of the EIR had been done, so I was assuming it was the commonly used delay tactic of many NIMBY folks to demand a lengthy, costly EIR to kill a project. That was not a fair assumption and therefore not a fair comment. I still don’t trust Beach Hill’s motives though. The traffic and parking study was done. It concluded that there was enough parking in a walkable distance from the arena. This is surely true. There are tons of parking spaces within a 15-minute walk of the site. Yet the study doesn’t quite pass the smell test, and that is probably because people are lazy and a 10-minute walk is a death march and they would rather circle the block 10 times and block someone’s driveway than make the walk. Seriously when Santa Cruz turned some free downtown lots into paid lots that cost a whole $0.50/hr there were nearly riots, so there is certainly a small town outlook on parking. However, the issue is handled just fine in the summer during beach tourist season. I don’t see why it cannot be handled in the same way in winter when events are held at the arena. The crowd studies and the sound studies all passed muster or plans were adjusted (metal sidings on the tent to reduce noise). However, just because a study doesn’t seem to pass the smell test does not mean that you can just throw it out. The opposition must provide reason and evidence for why the study is flawed or inaccurate.

From another stand point I see the point of those wondering why the City is putting up any money at all. Why are they loaning money to a rich franchise? Hell the initial loan was going to be less than the Mid-Level Exception. In general I think public financing of private arenas is a bad idea. Baseball may be the exception because there are 82 events a year, but in football it should never be done. The impact of 41 home basketball games is debatable, but the D-league only plays 24 home games. But again this was a loan, not a gift, however the payback of the loan is much trickier than my Honda Civic, and according to those that know better than me, including people within the City, there is a more than nominal chance at default on part of the loan. This seems to be based on how it is repaid, through rent and percentages or revenue that are not guaranteed. The loan amount has now almost doubled from its original amount 4 months ago. That being said, I was willing to look past this philosophical difference to see a team in Santa Cruz. Does this make me a hypocrite? Probably. Am I shaping the argument in my head so that I can rationalize my desired outcome? Again, probably. Did I drink @WorseThan_Cohan ‘s kool-aid? At least a few sips.

I am starting to ramble here to I am going to try and wrap it up concisely. I am sure I left out points I wanted to make, but as you can tell this is not as black and white as any of us wanted to be when it started.

Would having a D-league Team in Santa Cruz be a good thing? In my opinion absolutely yes, for the community, for local business, and for sports fans, having a pro team in town would be a good thing.

Is this current deal a good deal for the City of Santa Cruz and its citizens? That is much tougher and it is starting to look like it is not if we are even given enough information to decide.