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Opposition to new Golden State Warriors arena in San Francisco expands

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Opposition to the new Golden State Warriors arena in San Francisco expanded on Monday.

The Mission Bay Alliance and the mother of a critically ill child together have now filed another lawsuit to stop the development of a new arena in Mission Bay.


The arena would be located near UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, but opponents said arena traffic would be detrimental to those trying to get to the hospital. That is south of AT&T Park.

In its newest lawsuit, the group said the city violated a number of zone laws when it approved the plan, including limits on office space and the process of using public money for private development.

This is the third lawsuit filed by the same group, which wants to stop the arena plan from going forward.

The team announced last month the new arena will be called the Chase Center.

The team had plans to move into their new home in 2018 but have since been delayed at least a year due to a recently filed lawsuit filed by Mission Bay Alliance.

On Tuesday, Warriors spokesman P.J. Johnston issued the following statement on this recent lawsuit:

The Warriors bought a site with vested rights to 677,000 sf of Prop M allocation; we decided to use 577,000 sf, so we actually gave back 100,000 sf to Prop M pool.

The anonymous super-PAC fighting the Warriors just want that private land for their own business interests. Yesterday they were against the entertainment center; today they’re against the offices; tomorrow they’ll probably be against the public parks. It should be noted that this project isn’t just about a state-of-the-art arena, public plazas, parks, restaurants, cafes and offices — all privately financed, all community serving — but the Warriors are also generating $25 million for affordable housing in Mission Bay.

We expect the super-PAC to fail as miserably in a court of law as they have in the court of public opinion.

The team previously said it expected the group to sue, but that they would prevail in court.

“The only thing this lawsuit will accomplish will be to waste everyone’s time, delay all the jobs and economic activity the arena will bring, and line the pockets of a bunch of lawyers,” Johnston said in response to the first lawsuit.