The Warriors yesterday released new images of their S.F. arena project and related development. The 11-acre site in the city’s Mission Bay district sits about four blocks from AT&T Park. In addition to the 18,064-seat arena, outside the facility, the team plans to develop 100,000 square feet of retail space, mostly food-related, plus 580,000 square feet of office and technology space. Two outdoor plazas will span a combined 60,000 square feet. For the arena itself, one signature element is a covered outdoor deck near the roofline facing S.F. Bay. Separating the arena from the bay will be a new five-and-a-half-acre waterfront park. The arena is targeted to open for the '18-19 season. Its designers are Manica Architecture and Snohetta (Don Muret, Staff Writer). In San Jose, Diamond Leung reports Warriors President & COO Rick Welts "left the door open" to the $800M privately financed arena being ready by the '17-18 season. Team co-Owner Joe Lacob last week said this goal was "a real possibility." Leung notes the Warriors decided on "flushing previous drawings" that made the arena "appear to look like a toilet bowl." Welts said that he was "thankful that a social media reaction helped the organization realize initial drawings did make the arena appear like a toilet." Leung notes the arena project "features 950 parking spaces in three underground levels." The Mission Bay neighborhood "has about 9,000 parking spaces -- more than Oracle Arena -- and has Muni and Caltrain stops nearby" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 12/11). The S.F. Chronicle’s Ann Killion said the arena “no longer looks like a toilet, which is pretty nice.” Killion said it is “in the right place and would have been a disaster being in the Embarcadero.” CSN Bay Area's Jim Kozimor: “The Warriors got it done, and we’ve got to give them credit” (“Yahoo Sports Talk Live,” CSN Bay Area, 12/10).
