Warriors in talks to build arena by AT&T Park
Rusty Simmons, Chronicle Staff Writer
The parking lots south of AT&T Park and China Basin in San Francisco could be the new home for a Golden State Warriors basketball arena.
The Warriors met Wednesday with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Giants CEO Larry Baer to discuss the feasibility of erecting a new, state-of-the-art arena near AT&T Park that would open before the 2017-18 season.
Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber have talked about the need to replace Oracle Arena in Oakland since buying the basketball team in July 2010, but this is the first time they have publicly stated their intent to explore options in San Francisco. They have also had discussions with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan about building an arena at their current East Bay site.
"The potential for building an arena near AT&T Park is very exciting," Lacob said. "The Giants have done some remarkable things over there. It's a great ballpark that revitalized an entire part of the city.
"It took a year to get our feet wet, examine the organization and make a lot of changes. Step 2 is starting the process of getting a new arena somewhere in the Bay Area. We're a Bay Area team. We consider the whole Bay Area our market, whether we're located in San Francisco or Oakland."
Lee reached out to the Warriors and Giants last week to set up the meeting. The Warriors then contacted Quan and scheduled an advance meeting.
Lacob and team President and Chief Operating Officer Rick Welts met with Quan on Friday, informing her about the upcoming meeting with San Francisco's mayor. They also said they planned to start studying development options for a new arena, including in Oakland.
South of the ballpark
The Warriors brass met Wednesday with Baer, Lee and Jennifer Matz, the city's top executive for economic development. Lee encouraged the Warriors and Giants to explore realistic sites on land south of AT&T Park.
"This is a great opportunity for San Francisco, and I'm going to make sure the Warriors know that we are ready to welcome them back home," Lee said. "I asked the Giants to join us because of their considerable expertise in building a world-class sports arena in a dense urban setting, their partnership with us, and their reputation for being a good neighbor and just a valuable asset to the city in many ways.
"The jobs and revenue that this could generate for our residents is considerable."
In his dual roles as the Giants' chief operating officer and president of the China Basin Ballpark Corp., Baer was the driving force as San Francisco opened then-Pacific Bell Park to widespread acclaim in 2000.
"Building a new facility - whether it's an arena, a stadium or a ballpark - is exciting," Baer said. "It's something that is coming out of the ground, and it's a vision. It's really exciting stuff. It could be a dramatic and amazing development here."
Baer was careful to take a tertiary role in the arena plans, saying that the mayor's office was taking a leadership role and that it is the Warriors' decision. The Giants are trying to develop land south of the ballpark, including an effort to build an arena in the area.
With the infrastructure in place to handle a 41,500-seat stadium and the necessary mass transit, China Basin seems a prime locale for a 20,000-seat arena. A parking garage is already expected to be added.
"We have to explore all Bay Area options to fulfill the expectations of our fan base and to fulfill the commitment to building a world-class, championship-caliber organization," Welts said. "I think that's what our fans expect, and it's what we need to provide.
"Nothing on our agenda is more important than a new arena, other than the basketball team. Those are our dual focuses."
The team was called the San Francisco Warriors from 1962 to '71 when they played at the Cow Palace, but in 1966 started playing some home games at what was then called the Oakland Coliseum Arena. The name was changed to the Golden State Warriors and the team played nearly all its home games in Oakland in 1971.
NBA's oldest arena
The Warriors' lease at Oracle Arena runs through the 2016-17 season. The arena, built in 1966, is the oldest in the NBA - two years the senior of New York's Madison Square Garden - but it was extensively renovated in the mid-1990s.
Lacob and Guber recently approved new flat-screen TVs in Oracle suites, and are hoping that a high-definition scoreboard can be added before the Christmas-night opener. They have also updated the sound system, installed four new LED scoreboards in the upper corners, renovated the locker rooms and added Wi-Fi throughout the arena.
"We agreed to explore all feasible options over the next 68 months," Welts said. "Where it goes, where it ends, that will have to play itself out over the next many months."
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