The Golden State Warriors' plans to build a state-of-the-art arena on the waterfront at Piers 30-32 have been met with much opposition since the plans were formally announced back in May of 2012. During the press conference, co-executive chairman of the Warriors Peter Guber said "If you remember one thing today, we will play here in 2017. That that as a promise that we will fulfill. It will be a world class venue. We're all in." Unfortunately for Guber, he made a promise he can no longer keep. After grossly underestimating resistance felt by the opposition paired with the skyrocketing cost needed to restore the piers that the future arena would sit on, the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night purchased a 12-acre site in Mission Bay from Salesforce for an undisclosed amount. This is where the team will now build its arena, and with the hopes that it'll be ready in time for the 2018-19 NBA season. No word yet on if the architectural team Snøhetta and AECOM will tweak the original design to fit the site or start from scratch.
Building big in Mission Bay is a breeze, and the Warriors will experience a reduced amount of negative feedback from neighbors if it even receives any at all. It's all hearsay, but we're sure Salesforce was eager to offload the site to the Warriors since it just inked the biggest commercial lease in San Francisco's history as the Transbay Tower's anchor tenant. Pros of the new site include buying the land outright instead of leasing it from the Port of San Francisco. Cons include a rather dull view of the surrounding area, which is a UCSF medical campus on one side and a very drab view of the water, which is sprinkled with rusting old pilings, on the other.
· Welcome Home, San Francisco Warriors [Curbed SF]
· Developers Meet to Discuss Growing San Francisco Development Backlash [Curbed SF]
· NIMBY group formed to oppose waterfront arena [Curbed SF]
· Petition Started to Oppose Warriors Waterfront Arena [Curbed SF]
· Revised Renderings Released for Proposed Warriors Waterfront Arena [Curbed SF]
· Warriors ditch Piers 30-32 for Mission Bay arena site [SFGate]
· An Overview of Salesforce's Historic San Francisco Lease [Curbed SF]
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