Remember the toilet arena? Thankfully, the Golden State Warriors appear to be going another direction with their new home in San Francisco. The team unveiled beautifully updated renderings today for its future home at Mission Bay.
The privately funded arena is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2018-2019 season. It is the centerpiece of a larger “entertainment center” that will boast a waterfront park similar to Fort Mason green on the northern portion of the San Francisco peninsula.
Golden State executives spoke glowingly of the arena’s final design. Via the team’s official website:
“We believe this plan is a perfect fit for Mission Bay, for San Francisco, and for the entire region,” said Joe Lacob, Co-Executive Chairman and CEO of the Warriors. “Our goal is to not only build a world-class arena for our team and our fans, but also create a vibrant place that residents and visitors will want to enjoy, whether on game days or any other day.”
“The new Warriors sports and entertainment center is going to activate Mission Bay in new ways and create a 21st century fan experience and a premier entertainment experience for concert and convention-goers,” said Co-Executive Chairman Peter Guber. “It will serve as a ‘digital’ meeting place, with state-of-the-art amenities, unbelievable sightlines and new views of the Bay.”
“This is perhaps the only professional sports and entertainment center in the nation that is being built entirely with private money – not just for the arena itself, but for the land,” said Warriors President and COO Rick Welts. “That reflects this team’s commitment to the Bay Area. We’ve been the Bay’s NBA team for over 50 years, and we want to be the Bay’s team for the next 50 years.”
There’s been speculation among Bay Area residents that the Warriors will replace Golden State with San Francisco in the team’s official name. Team president Rick Welts had this to say concerning those rumors:
Rick Welts on Warriors potentially changing Golden State: "I haven't spent five minutes thinking about it yet."
— Diamond Leung (@diamond83) December 10, 2014
Personally, we hope Welts spends no time thinking about it at all.
The ‘Dubs are the entire Bay’s team, not solely San Francisco’s. After building so much goodwill over the past few seasons, the organization would risk alienating a sizable set of fans by making a locational delineation. San Francisco is already getting the team, and considering the new arena is privately funded, it doesn’t deserve such a naming distinction any more or less than Oakland does now.
Either way, we can’t wait to watch Golden State play at its stunning new home in four years’ time.
What do you think?
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