of showing their commitment, but it is going to need the commitment of all of us in the city to assure that this iconic institution continues to provide an outlet for learned about bali, shanghai, japanese art, not just for students here now, but for upcoming generations. this is an iconic institution that does not just certification san francisco. it is a world-recognized leader. people come from all over the world to learn about asian art. that is the population that this great institution provides for a run the world. it will be incumbent upon us to work with the museum foundation to do what we need to do to make the case to the greater populous as to why they need to financially support this institution and assure that a few years from now we are not in the same place. i think everybody had done their part and it is up to us as a community to show that we value

what is an iconic institution and provide world leadership for people throughout the world to have an interest in asian art. i want to thank mayor newsom, mayer brown for coming out of retirement, so to speak, to make sure that he will continue to help in the fundraising effort, and i applaud everyone's work that they have done to assure that 15 years from now this institution continues to be the world leader in educating generations of san franciscans about the importance of asian art. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, dennis. what a wonderful speech. it was before my time, but i remember mayer brown who unveiled this wonderful building, museum to the people of san francisco. so once again he is with us. let's will come mayer brown. -- welcome mayor brown.

>> when mayor newsom telephoned me and asked if i would be available to participate in the effort to make sure that all san franciscans assumed collectively the responsibility to put this institution on sound financial grounds, now and going forward, obviously, i could not turn down that request. i suspect every other san franciscan would do likewise. he told me the city attorney's office would do what would need to be done to make sure that we would have the opportunity to do it. he said there were some people already pledged on the foundation side to be a part of the effort. obviously, it is going to take lots of hard work, but it is,

frankly, a joy to be part of maintaining, and hopefully, perpetuating one of the flagship cultural institutions in this city. this city is about culture. this city is about pride in ethnic heritage. this city is about an appreciation of the extraordinary talents of people on the arts side and to have 6000-year-old pieces that you can see no other place in the world come and to have the collection here -- you understand the brundage collection could have been dropped anywhere in the world. he chose us to be a caretaker of those 17,000 pieces -- whatever the number happens to be. we can do no less than justify

that by being successful at raising what dennis tells me this summer in the neighborhood of $25 million. that is a small figure compared to what we have raised with this young museum, what a fisher family gave for the expansions of the museum of modern art, what was raised with the jewish museum. what we're trying to raise for the museum that will reflect the culture of the hispanic world of san francisco and beyond. all these institutions come together in one fashion or another and makes this part of the most wonderful place on earth in which to live. mr. mayor, i am proud, from your the 10 governorships, if and when it begins -- [laughter] you still want to be a part of this wonderful city.

the rest of us are certainly going to welcome you. i know there will be a celebration in the not too distant future. we will do what we do at my church. we burn the mortgage. we are going to burn the mortgage. [applause] thank you, mr. mayor, mr. brown. >> we have had tremendous leadership from the mayor's cabinet, city attorney's office, but also from the board of supervisors. with us is the president of the board of supervisors david chiu. welcome. >> thank you. first of all, i want to thank all of you for being here at this wonderful announcement. i want to thank all of my colleagues from the public sector world and your leadership

for helping to rescue this incredible institution. as mayor brown said -- and i do not need to restate it. this institution is of critical importance to the arts world, to the asian community, to the storytelling of who we are as human beings. i am so honored to be an asian american representative here in san francisco and to have the largest art collection in the western world in our cities across the street from where i work is truly special. to have the 6000-year history, as depicted in the 17,000 artifacts that are here, i do not think any of us can question our fortune. the work that was done to pull together this complicated negotiation and to get to where we are today, i want to thank the mayor, city attorney, then

rosenfield, nadia, my colleagues on the board. i commit to you as the president of the board of supervisors along with my colleagues, that we will do what we need to do to get this done. hopefully, in short order, we can write the financial situation here and get us back on a footing we need to hopefully be an institution that will be around for another 6000 years. thank you for being here. [applause] >> our next speaker will be the president of the foundation of the asian art museum and the vice chair of the asian arts commission. >> on behalf of the asian art museum foundation, i express our deep gratitude to mayor newsom, mayer brown, city attorney dennis herrerra, controller

rosenfield, and other leaders for their leadership and helping us find a solution to the debt. we appreciate the city's assistance and support for assisting us in these difficult economic challenges. the city's support is for a wealthy cause. for nearly 40 years, the asian art museum foundation has provided much-needed financial support for the museum. this support has enabled the museum to successfully fulfill its mission of leading a diverse global audience in discovering the unique materials, aesthetic and intellectual, achievements of the asian culture. over the years, millions of museum visitors have experienced the museum's world-renowned connection -- collection. truly one of the city's most viable assets as well as for a great array of education.

the city's plan for strengthening the museum's financial position will make sure the foundation can continue these efforts for future generations. a successful capital campaign requires leadership, leadership, -- leadership, vision, and a well found gold. the foundation's leadership, led by our chair, has developed a framework of a strategic plan that aims to bolster the museum's commitment to serving our community. the plan also intends to maintain the organization's financial health to robust fundraising while also making sure the museum uses its resources in the most effective manner. we fully recognize the challenge that lies ahead but oare confident that our members and donors will support us, as they have done in the past.

the foundation welcomes the leadership of the city in helping us achieve our goal. also, thanks to the board of supervisors who have shown strong support of the mayor's proposal. thank you very much. [applause] >> let's welcome supervisor carmen chu. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you for all of the individuals who came today. as you know, today is a day that we can celebrate a path for for the asian arts museum. i want to take some time to thank the people who have been so crucial in making sure this day is here. mayor gavin newsom and your staff for leading this effort and for all of your attention to this. even over the winter holiday, i know staff was working through this, so a big thank-you to you.

dennis and his fine team who have been working diligently to make sure that all the terms are correct, that we have the best deal for the city. thank you to the board president and members of the board who have always supported the asian arts museum. this is a good day for the asian foundation. of course, to the comptroller ben rosenfield and nadia, we would not be here without your hard work. today, i simply want to give two messages. one is just how important the asian art museum is to san francisco and to our history. san francisco and asian american communities are intricately linked. we have had a huge mystery here. one of the things that this museum represents to me personally is not just an arts museum that shows bali and the shanghai exhibit. it is the history from where my parents came, from where many

san franciscans have come. if there is any message i could leave today, for my lincoln high school mustangs out there, communities in the richmond, bayview hunters point, visitation valley -- this is not my museum along. this is your museum, this is your history. please support the museum. please make sure that this can stay here for your generation and for our kids. thank you for the tremendous leadership we have seen today, and thank you in advance to the community for their support. [applause] thank you -- >> thank you so much supervisor carmen chu. now i think we have all been waiting to hear from our city comptroller ben rosenfield about key points of the proposal to restructure the foundation's bond. [applause]

>> that would be the first time that people would be waiting to hear me speak. [laughter] i am just happy to be here today because that means we found a solution to a set of problems that threaten the viability and vitality of this wonderful institution. more than anything, i am pleased that collectively we have gone to that point. i will talk through some of the high points in the deal. fundamentally, this is a complicated negotiation agreement that involves five different parties, very quickly worked out under challenging circumstances and executed this morning. some are still subsequent to board approval, approval of the founders of the board of directors and others, but the deal is set. what it's fundamentally does -- of the $120 million in

outstanding debt that the foundation formally held, lenders have forgiven $21 million. so approaching 20% of the debt has been written off. secondly, $30 million approximately in collateral that the foundation had been required to post with j.p. morgan under the terms of the old financial arrangement. those would be returned to the foundation. the form of that underlie agreement has been ripped up. secondly, so that the amount of outstanding debt is reduced, what is outstanding his then refinanced under more stable terms. form of financing was a variable rate subject to interest-rate fluctuations that would change the foundation's payments. it has been restructured as a stable, fixed 30-year loan at

4.6%, which is a competitive rate, and is free of some of the other financial bells and whistles that had served to create some of the challenge with the former financing. third, the foundation commits, with the assistance of elected to the leadership, to raise $20 million over the next 20 years to meet the remaining gap on this financing. lastly, the city enters into this agreement and provides certain assurances for the lenders necessary to make this financing work. in essence, we lead our credit rating to this deal. in the words of the city attorney, it is hard to find such a good deal for all the five parties involved. it would not have happened without the leadership of each. i am here, happy to talk about

the leadership before me and look forward to more stable financial footing for the foundation and this wonderful museum in the years ahead. thank you. [applause] >> once again, on behalf of the staff of the asian art museum, i cannot say enough of our gratitude to civic leaders, mayor newsom, the city attorney, and board of supervisors president david chiu, carmen chu, ben rosenfield, and the public utilities finance director, and the others who have done so much work without being mentioned. and everyone coming together, from the museum to our city, and banking communities coming together to develop this proposal. about the value of the museum, i

cannot say it any better any be civic leaders that have said about the wonderful importance of this museum. so we are very motivated to work together, to move the process forward and the at some upon the i would like to acknowledge some of the save members on the museum staff who worked diligently particularly our c.f.o., mark. he is right there. thank you very much. come back to visit us as a body and once again we have experienced wonderful art from asia and interconnectivity from asia and our city. our leaders here will be available for interviews afterwards for questions. thank you very much for coming.

>> please welcome the hon. gavin newsom and larry ellison, team

owner, oracle racing. [applause] [applause] ♪ ♪

♪ >> please welcome are masters of ceremony, johnnie moseley. [applause] >> mayor newsom, distinguished guests, welcome. you might be wondering what i'm doing up here, but i did sail as a kid. at some point, i thought i could be a world class sailer. and then i got last place and i figured out skiing was for me. i would like to be involved. i'm honored to be here. i would like to be actually

sailing, but this is the gig that i have got. thank you very much. these are incredible. i think that's what is bringing a lot of excitement to the america's cup that is coming to the city. it is amazing. they are fast. i may freestyle skiier. when i watch them, it is exciting. it reminds me of an extreme sport. it's going to bring a lot of excitement to this city. i've been to a lot of events that are big. i saw what the olympics did for salt lake city, and what it is still doing, all the youth programs, and the ski jumps. 2010 ended with the news we had all been hoping for, that the 2013 america's cup would come to san francisco, and, indeed, it has. are really pleased with that. [applause]

today is really a celebration. today is really a celebration to honor the people who have done so much hard work to bring it to this city. mayor gavin newsom. [applause] richard worth and fred thompson of the america's cup event authority. board of supervisors president david chiu. [applause] oracle racing team owner, larry ellison. [applause] we also have representatives of two of the teams that will be competing. from oracle, john.

[applause] and paul. [applause] so let's start with the man who made this all possible, under his watch, america's cup and a world series, san francisco's mayor gavin newsom. [applause] >> thank you. welcome, everybody. this is a day many people did not think was going to happen. i could not been more proud of that so many of you took the time to be here to truly celebrate and reflect on an extraordinary moment in san francisco's history. this is a big deal. i will confess, though at my own peril, that i did not understand what a big deal this was when we started down this path and we

walked down the steps, larry, about a year or so ago in february 2010. i've always loved sailing. as a vestige of my youth, i remember becoming more aggressively engaged in the defense of the america's cup as it was held in san diego and back east. i truly never understood how transform give a could be to a city into a region and to a state, and to this country. how many people came up to us, people i never imagines were so support of an enthusiastic, and engaged. it really represented the diversity of our great city and our state. i just want to say on behalf of each and every one of you, those that came together, those that fought so hard, those that organized so courageously around this effort -- you deserve all

the credit. to all the community groups, the community leaders, the environmental organizations, the labor leaders, to our extraordinary staff, the city attorney's office that worked so diligently on this, and every single member of the board of supervisors that came together around this, particularly president david chiu and ross mirkarimi. the incredible support we received from gov. george naarnd schwarzenegger. to our own secretary, secretary george shultz, who was so enthusiastic and supportive, and to our real leaders, with mark buell at the helm of the advisory committee. thank you. thank you to tom perkins. thank you to all of you for your

hard work. to the business community that lined up strong support regionally and locally, and across the state. former mayor willie brown, who was my first phone call in encouraging the support for this race. he will take all the credit when he arrives. to the great leadership, and to my office, to my chief of staff, steve, who gave up a good portion of his christmas break. he is up your summer. steve, thank you. to the project manager -- [applause] [applause] they love you. she is going to be on the cover of "sailing illustrated" or something soon. and to jen from my economic develop office. thank you for your great

leadership. [applause] most importantly, and sincerely, to larry ellison. a lot was said and a lot was written. a lot of words were exchanged. not necessarily a negative, but positive back and forth in a very public way. san francisco is a unique place. we're very transparent. we are process driven. the process was a very inclusive process. there was one person, and i said this throughout -- this was not patronizing. this was not just a mayor saying what he needed to say to move the process along. there was one person who was completely steady throughout the process, and that was larry. through each stage of this effort, i always knew that he wanted to be here. at the same time, i always knew that we had to go through a process that was appropriate for

an investment of this type. you have to remember, we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that will be invested in the city and county of san francisco. $1 billion of economic activity. tens of thousands of people will be coming to the city from all over the region. hundreds of thousands of people from all over this country, and potentially millions of people from all parts of the world. they had a lot to offer. when you have something extraordinary to offer and you are going to make investments that are without precedent, you have every right to make sure you are being treated with respect, and traded in an appropriate matter. regardless of what some folks have said or wrote, you could not ask for a better partner then larry and his team.

i mean that. larry, thank you for your commitment to our city. [applause] i will end with this. we were here a couple of months ago. we were celebrating the giants victory, which was a pretty big thing for all of us. we waited half a century for that. i hope you all take the time, because the world series trophy is here today, as is the america's cup trophy. how about that? eat your heart out, new york city. [applause] but one thing we all discovered is that sense of spirit, that sense of pride and optimism that only sports can provide. you cannot legislate spirit. you cannot legislate pride. sports have aay