[peanut gallery]

Some big news coming out tonight. UCSF will now endorse the Warriors new arena, taking some of the wind out of the sails of the opposition. From the SF Business Times:

With a $10 million-plus fund for potential traffic issues and other safeguards, the leadership of the University of California, San Francisco — whose Mission Bay campus sits across from the proposed arena, office and retail project — now officially endorses the project, Lee said Tuesday.

The endorsement is a big win for the Warriors and Lee, who sees the return of the Warriors to San Francisco after more than 40 years in Oakland as a signature project. It also undercuts the ability of the opposing Mission Bay Alliance to use UCSF's previously lukewarm reception to the Warriors' plans as a tool to drum up opposition.

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But UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood signing off on an endorsement moves the institution from tacit approval to a full-on OK of an 18,050-seat arena in time for the tipoff of the 2018-19 season. The alliance continues to say, however, that the development would overwhelm Mission Bay with traffic and block access to UCSF hospitals.

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The agreements — one creating a dedicated transportation improvement fund, the other setting a "special circumstances cap" that requires last-resort limitations when there are overlapping events at the arena and the San Francisco Giants' AT&T Park, less than a half-mile down Third Street — would provide the "safeguards UCSF needs to fully endorse the Warriors' arena project," Hawgood said.

The fund would be fed by at least $10 million to spend annually on possible solutions to traffic problems through the life of the arena, Lee's office said. That could be used for four new light-rail cars dedicated to serving the arena — and available at other times to augment general Muni light-rail service — new, expanded light-rail platforms for the T-Third line serving Mission Bay, and a plan to keep certain streets clear of event traffic for UCSF, local businesses and residents.

The money would come from revenue generated by the Warriors' arena.