Dive Brief:

• The California Supreme Court has rejected a request that it stop construction on the Golden State Warriors' new $1 billion San Francisco basketball arena, according to the San Francisco Business Times.
• This latest court action all but ends the Mission Bay Alliance's legal options in its quest to kill the project and clears the way for construction to continue, as the team held its groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday.
• The Alliance, which is made up primarily of University of California, San Francisco staff and allies, objects to the location of the arena and has challenged the project several times in court based on its environmental impact review. The group, however, also has another pending legal action involving the mitigation of traffic to and from hospitals near the arena site.

Dive Insight:

Although the Alliance has yet to win a court battle against the Warriors, it did manage to delay the team's move from the Oracle Arena in Oakland until the 2019-2020 NBA season. Warriors officials had originally projected the 18,000-seat Chase Center would be ready for the 2017-2018 season.

The Alliance has expressed concern about how the activity, noise, traffic and potential pollution would affect patients in nearby women’s, children’s and cancer hospitals, even stating in a lawsuit that "some people will die trying to get to the hospital if this stadium is built next to the emergency room." Along with the arena, the team plans to build a mixed-use complex with two office towers and a public plaza with retail and dining.

Opponents of the project faced a major blow in November, when the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled in favor of the Warriors and denied the Mission Bay Alliance's legal challenge against the project, as it said the team had conducted a proper environmental study of the arena's impact. That decision followed another ruling in the team's favor earlier in 2016 when a San Francisco Superior Court judge decided there was no need for additional environmental reviews for the project.

The Warriors have consistently argued that the arena and its construction, which is privately financed, would bring a much-needed economic boost to the Mission Bay area and generate at least $25 million for affordable housing. The Warriors selected the joint venture of Clark Construction and Mortenson to build the facility, with both contractors bringing their extensive sports construction experience to the table. Mortenson successfully completed construction on the Minnesota Vikings' $1.1 billion U.S. Bank Stadium last summer, and Clark's projects include Nationals Park and the Washington Redskins' FedEx Field.