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OAKLAND — Tuesday marks the start of the Golden State Warriors final season at Oracle Arena. Then, off they go to San Francisco. Of all the history etched in Oakland during the team’s 46-year run here, one piece remained largely buried, until now:
How close the Warriors came in 1995 to moving to San Jose.
Close enough to schedule a press conference — cancelled with just hours to spare — to announce the news. Close enough to tuck away a special No. 1 jersey made for then-San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer. Close enough to walk away from a deal nearly inked. As attorney Dan Purcell put it, then–owner Chris Cohan left San Jose “at the altar.”
Hundreds of pages of legal documents and transcripts released to this news organization agency through a public records request replay the 24 hour-period when Cohan abruptly dropped plans to move south and returned to negotiations with Oakland.
The records pertain to the current dispute between the Warriors and Oakland and Alameda County over whether the team is required to pay some $40 million in bond debt upon crossing the bridge next season to play in a team-financed arena in San Francisco.
In July 2010, Cohan sold the team to Joe Lacob and Peter Guber. But the disputed contract was inked under Cohan, after he ended talks with San Jose. Each side offered final arguments before an arbitration judge on Sept. 10. The judge is expected to rule at the end of this month.
The long-buried story about San Jose’s close call of landing the Warriors is based on transcripts of the arbitration hearings and interviews of the key players of the era.
Back in 1995, Oakland found itself in a situation with its sports teams similar to today. “We were losing all the teams back then,” said former Oakland Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente.
The Oakland A’s were searching for a new ballpark outside of Oakland, the city had just wooed the Raiders back from Los Angeles after 12 years away with promises of new luxury boxes and other improvements, and the Warriors were flirting with San Jose. Cohan, founder of Sonic Communications, purchased the team for $115 million the previous year from Jim Fitzgerald and Dan Finanne and was looking for a more modern and larger venue for his team.
“They were playing people off each other as sports franchises are known to do,” said Elihu Harris, who was mayor of Oakland at the time. “The threat of going to San Jose was certainly one that they used. There’s no question they talked about it.”
According to multiple news reports in 1995, San Jose had offered a $43.5 million package for the team to play at San Jose Arena, now the SAP Center. In Oakland, the Warriors had suggested the city and county build a publicly financed $140 million arena, which the team wanted to rent. Any deal in Oakland, however, was fading as an Oct. 31, 1995, deadline — the date the Oakland arena contract expired — approached.
As Robin Baggett tells it, momentum swung toward San Jose. Baggett, an attorney and former spokesman for the Warriors, said a South Bay practice facility was identified. A memorandum of understanding with the San Jose Sharks was dated Oct. 23, 1995, he said at the arbitration hearing. Baggett, a childhood friend of Cohan’s who now owns a winery business, said a news conference to announce the move was scheduled, and then Cohan had a phone conversation with an Oakland-Alameda official.
“I was directed to cancel the press conference,” Baggett said. “We even had a jersey made for the mayor of San Jose … This was less than 24 hours away.”
Baggett said he recommended Cohan take the San Jose deal, but the owner wanted to hear out Oakland. He couldn’t remember the person Cohan spoke with, but Tim Preece said he was the one on the other end of the phone call that changed Warriors history. Preece, the lead negotiator for the Coliseum board, said he had recently unearthed plans by the Fitzgerald ownership group to renovate the Oakland arena.
The files, Preece said in a recent phone interview, disappeared from city, council and Coliseum files, but he found “the only copy left” at a San Francisco contractor’s office. Preece, who has a background in finance, said the Coliseum group put together a financial plan and he phoned Cohan.
“I told him we could easily finance the rebuilding of the (arena) and we had the plans to do it,” Preece, now 91, said. “He said, ‘I’m in San Jose. It’s a good thing you called cause in 10 minutes I was going to announce we were moving to San Jose.’ That was how close we came to losing the Warriors.”
Preece remembers Cohan telling him, “I’ll be in tomorrow morning (Oct. 26, 1995).” The following day, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum officials announced they would gut the interior of the arena, build luxury suites and add room for 5,700 more fans.
In February 1996, the team signed a memorandum of understanding to play at the Oakland arena; they played for one year in San Jose during renovations of the venue. News accounts in the Contra Costa Times described San Jose Mayor Hammer as “irked” by the process. The new arena opened in 1997.
Coliseum authority attorney Dan Purcell in his closing arguments recounted the San Jose negotiations during this September’s arbitration hearing.
“We can imagine that might have felt a little humiliating, a little bit jilting to the city of San Jose,” Purcell said.
When reached at her home in San Jose, Hammer, the former mayor, declined to comment. “I haven’t thought about it in years,” she said.
