Warriors Pick New Site for Arena

[colortv]

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2014/04/warriors_salesforce.php

[Burmy]

So, nothing else new...only reason I'm interested is because they might FINALLY dump that college-sounding name and be the San Francisco Warriors again!

[The_Admiral]

This is probably more reasonable than building on a pier anyway. It's still kinda on the waterfront, it's still close to the Giants. Looks good to me.

[Muggens]

I've always though the arena should be south of AT&T Park is the Mission Bay area.

The Golden State Warriors have abandoned their plan to build an arena on Piers 30-32 just south of the Bay Bridge and instead have purchased a site in Mission Bay to hold their new 18,000-seat venue, sources close to the deal have confirmed to The Chronicle.

The Warriors bought the 12-acre site fromSalesforce.com for an undisclosed amount in a deal that was inked Saturday night. The team plans to have the arena ready for the 2018-19 NBA season.

The shift in location provides the team with predictability, fewer regulatory hurdles and eliminates the need for any voter approval.

It should also assuage the project's most vocal critics, who opposed building a 120-foot high arena on Piers 30-32 over concerns about traffic, environmental impacts during construction and blocked views of the Bay Bridge.

The Mission Bay site, where Salesforce originally planned to locate its corporate campus, will have a planned waterfront park across from the arena, has a Muni T-Third stop right in front of it, and already has two adjacent parking garages that can hold a combined 2,130 cars.

When the Central Subway opens - projected for 2018, the year the Warriors plan to open the arena - the line will provide essentially a straight shot to the Powell Street Muni/BART station downtown.

The Warriors will own the site outright, rather than leasing it from the Port of San Francisco, and say the arena will be entirely privately financed - perhaps the first sports venue of its kind in the country that uses no taxpayer funds or public land.

The new site does not, however, have the stunning views of the Bay Bridge, instead looking out onto a dry dock, an industrial pier and the rusting old pilings that dot the water.

[FiddySicks]

It's a bit of a shame that they ditched the Legacy project because the thought of a stadium right on the waterfront is pretty cool, but it's probably for the best. The cost of reinforcing the land around the pier kept increasing the more they looked into it, and it violated about a million different San Francisco City building codes in terms of height and traffic load. The new site isn't going to pack nearly the same wow factor into it as the previous site would have, but it'll be nice to be on the other side of the China Basin and Mission Bay (I believe that the 49ers looked into this same spot before settling on Santa Clara but there just wasn't enough room), and this will probably ease the pressure on public transportation as MUNI outlets right next to AT&T Park in a much more efficient manner than if they had tried to shoehorn a new stop in right in between to Pier 30/32. Parking will be even more of an absolute bitch than it already is, but maybe people will finally have the sense enough to actually take BART into the city rather than insisting on paying $75 for parking.

[The_Admiral]

The new site isn't going to pack nearly the same wow factor into it as the previous site would have

I get this, and you're right that it won't, but I feel like the line of thinking that a basketball arena should be some sort of architectural and infrastructural marvel has to be indicative of some sort of great societal decline or another. While I'm not saying they ought to play in a big grey box like the Sharks do, it's perfectly acceptable for a sports facility to be designed to get thousands and thousands of people in and out of a building without an overwhelming deal of consideration for wow factor. Maybe proposing to build a beautiful arena on a pier was the point where we officially lost the plot.

[FiddySicks]

The new site isn't going to pack nearly the same wow factor into it as the previous site would have

I get this, and you're right that it won't, but I feel like the line of thinking that a basketball arena should be some sort of architectural and infrastructural marvel has to be indicative of some sort of great societal decline or another. While I'm not saying they ought to play in a big grey box like the Sharks do, it's perfectly acceptable for a sports facility to be designed to get thousands and thousands of people in and out of a building without an overwhelming deal of consideration for wow factor. Maybe proposing to build a beautiful arena on a pier was the point where we officially lost the plot.

That's one of the main factors I was trying to get at by saying this is probably for the best. Now I wish I hadn't deleted that last paragraph about how the "view" is essentially meaningless because it's an enclosed building that would block out that great view from everywhere except the east concourse.

Had this been another baseball park, the "wow factor" would've held more weight because the very nature of baseball parks are meant to be open aired venues. The whle point of basketball/hockey arenas is to prevent issues like having the sun in a player's eyes during free throw attempts.

[The_Admiral]

Yeah, I'll allow for placing a certain aesthetic premium on ballparks, but year-round facilities are just that. The United Center and Bell Centre have no architectural merits other than being really big.

[Muggens]

[NJTank]

Nice, this will be great for the Warriors and I think they are going to become the San Francisco Warriors in 2017, I say why wait do it now.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

Nice, this will be great for the Warriors and I think they are going to become the San Francisco Warriors in 2017, I say why wait do it now.

That would be like kicking Oakland in the nuts. They already know the Warriors are on the way across the bay, but they still have them for a few years. Leave them their dignity at least.

[NJTank]

Oakland has dignity left?

There is no there there

[FiddySicks]

Nice, this will be great for the Warriors and I think they are going to become the San Francisco Warriors in 2017, I say why wait do it now.

Yeah! THEY SHOULD JUST LAY IN THAT EMPTY LOT!!!!

[NJTank]

The name golden state is so lame. San Francisco Warriors much better

[bosrs1]

Good choice by the Warriors. It's not their "legacy project" that they'd previously been pursuing, but frankly it's still a great location. It also has the added benefit of being right off Interstate 280 allowing for even easier access in and out for the suburban fans while still being right off the Muni line like the Embarcadero site would have been for the SF locals. It also throws a wrench into the SF city leadership's stupid idea to demolish said freeway for no reason other than SF is "anti freeway".

To say nothing of the benefit of finally ditching the ridiculous "Golden State" moniker.

[LMU]

Although I wouldn't put it past the NHL to, as an attendance grab, have the Copper State Coyotes and the Sunshine State Panthers.

[smith03]

Nice, this will be great for the Warriors and I think they are going to become the San Francisco Warriors in 2017, I say why wait do it now

wait to the new arena to open so the warriors have a new arena, new name, new logo, and new uniforms in '17.

[bosrs1]

Well the team confirmed through third parties that the name will be San Francisco Warriors starting in 2018. So that's good news. Also a nice kick to the nuts to Oakland.

[Soarindude]

What's wrong with Golden state Warriors? I like the individuality.

[McCall]

What's wrong with Golden state Warriors? I like the individuality.

Individuality? By using the nickname for the entire state of California?