Warriors planning to skip out on Oracle Arena bill

As an Alameda County resident, I want to personally thank the front office of the Golden State Warriors for the lovely parting gift they plan to bestow on their East Bay fans, supporters and landlords.

They are truly a classy organization.

When the Warriors gloriously announced their purchase of a 12-acre plot in San Francisco for a new arena last week, they also delivered a less-than-celebratory message to Oakland and Alameda County.

The team informed the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority that when it leaves in 2017, it will stop paying the public bonds issued in the mid-1990s to make seating, scoreboard and other upgrades at the Oracle Arena. Those 30-year municipal bonds generated $140 million in improvements and won't be paid off until 2027.

But the Warriors won't be sticking around to pay their share.

That's right, folks. The reward to the public for more than four decades of fan support, through good and bad times, is an unpaid bill for more than $60 million.

"Our rent, debt and other payment obligations expire after the 2017 season," Raymond Ridder, a Warriors spokesman, told The Chronicle last week. "We have the option to extend the lease, but not the obligation."

Ridder is absolutely correct about the rent, but the bond obligation is another story.

The lease agreement between the two parties is as obvious as the nose on your face - even a fourth-grader could understand it. The team agreed to shoulder a portion of the bond debt until it's paid off - even if the lease agreement ends or the team leaves. It's right there in black and white.

The Warriors are on the hook for about $7.4 million annually until 2027. Those costs can be reduced by proceeds from concerts, truck pulls and other entertainment events held at the arena, but they are responsible for the difference.

Even more stunning than the decision itself is the Warriors' lack of business ethics.

They aren't stiffing a service provider or a jersey manufacturer. They are stiffing their own fans and financiers - trying to stick John Q. Public with a bill they generated for work they requested.

You can even take it one step further than that: Not only has the team sealed its departure from the East Bay, but now it is actually going to try to get Oakland and Alameda County residents to pay for the move as well.

If the National Basketball Association is interested in maintaining its public image, the big-mouthed, racist owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling, isn't the only public relations disaster.

Sterling did damage with words. The Warriors are doing damage with their actions.

They are damaging their own credibility, and this calls into question the operations of the NBA's front office, which certainly has a say in how teams conduct their business.

If the team insists on this route, then the Coliseum Authority has little choice but to pursue a legal remedy.

The Warriors have chosen to fight the way unscrupulous rich people fight when they want to avoid responsibility: They hire lawyers and use their money to obscure truth, wear down opponents and in the end pay less than what is owed.

I hope, just for once, the tried-and-true formula gets turned on its head.

If what the team has proposed is fair, then Alameda County residents should be able to attend Warriors games for free until the bill is paid off.