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Courts uphold $23.5 million to Coliseum from Warriors

Daily Planet Wire Service
Thursday August 29, 2002

The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority has won two court rulings in the past two days in disputes with the Golden State Warriors that could net the coliseum $23.5 million in back revenues – if the rulings stand up on appeal. 

In the first decision, a state appeals court in San Francisco on Tuesday upheld a 1999 arbitration award that requires the Warriors to pay the coliseum $17 million for premium seating revenues and other fees between 1997 and 1999. 

Coliseum authority lawyer Jon Streeter said interest since 1999 amounts to $4.5 million, making the total $21.5 million in that case. 

Streeter said that in a second ruling, an Alameda County Superior Court judge Tuesday confirmed another award in which a different arbitrator in January said the basketball team must pay $2 million for proceeds of a ticket surcharge over the past two years. 

The disputes began after the Warriors started playing in November 1997 in a new arena constructed in the coliseum, which was financed in part through taxpayer-guaranteed bonds. The premium seating revenues were intended to help retire the bond debt. 

Streeter said the double decisions are “a great thing for Oakland.” 

Lawyers and spokesmen for the Warriors were not immediately available for comment this afternoon. 

Both rulings could be appealed.