[peanut gallery]

The Warriors also announced that financing and a general contractor are in place. From the SF Business Times:

A joint venture between Clark Construction Co. and M.A. Mortenson Co. is set to build the Golden State Warriors' $1 billion arena in San Francisco, which also has financing ready to deploy, team co-owner and CEO Joe Lacob said.

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The Mortenson/Clark joint venture was picked as the general contractor as long ago as last fall, but the team had not publicly identified the builder until Lacob spoke Monday to the San Francisco Business Times. A Mortenson official on Tuesday referred questions to the Warriors.

The still-undisclosed financier — which Lacob described as a "big, big, big, big financial institution," but not a bank — has been in place for a couple years, he said, and would layer on top of funding provided by a Warriors' ownership group of more than 30 people.

The arena project is entirely privately funded, a rarity in a sports business world where cities and regions subsidize stadiums as an economic development tool or to retain or attract "major league" status. The Warriors' plans would — in theory, at least — be accelerated because there is no direct government money and the team now controls the site.

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The Warriors hope to secure all the necessary government approvals for the project by the end of the year, Lacob said. The franchise, which expects to open an interactive preview center in Mission Bay early next year and allow season-ticket holders to pick their seats later in 2016, plans to have the entire site ready for a move from Oakland by the tipoff of the 2018-19 National Basketball Association season.

But the Warriors still must win a key sign-off of the environmental impact report, or EIR, from the city's Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure Commission. That OK could come next month, and the Board of Supervisors may approve the EIR by the end of the year, Lacob said.