by Jerry Feitelberg

The Golden State Warriors big dream of having a new arena at Piers 30-32, a hotel and condos built across the street from the piers was scraped on Monday due to the huge public opposition to develop on the waterfront on the Embarcadero due to height concerns by neighborhood residents.

The Warriors who on Monday said their decision to move from Piers 30-32 to Mission Bay was solely because of the costs to build at Piers 30-32 which doubled in the neighborhood of $180 million for construction costs. Within the last month a ballot drive to put a San Francisco initiative Proposition B to stop development on the waterfront due to height concerns had seen well over the minimum amount of petitions to get the initiative on the ballot.

With this in mind the Warriors knew they would be beaten at the ballot box in the upcoming November election and therefore withdrew from the Pier 30-32 plans and announced that they purchased property at the Mission Bay site which is located south of AT&T Park another site that the Warriors were rumored to moving to.

The Mission Bay site which is owned by Saleforce.com will sell to the Warriors, the property was going to be used for UCSF biotech redevelopment but with the new arena city officials and Salesforce who is willing to sell see the project at the location a community benefit, “the mayor recognizes and we recognize that the city is moving south, there are some great advantages for the city in this as well” said Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob.

Former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos and former Board President Aaron Peskin were strong opponents of the Piers 30-32 project because of the height issue are supportive of the Mission Bay project, “this is a historic moment of the people of San Francisco because we have protected our precious bay and waterfront, as well as gained a new hometown basketball team” said Agnos.

The Warriors new arena at Mission Bay is the second Northern California NBA team to confirm a new location for an arena development as the Sacramento Kings will begin building their new arena at the downtown plaza in Sacramento in June which is expected to be ready for the 2016-17 season. The Warriors who last played at the Cow Palace before moving to the Oakland Arena in 1971 is scheduled to have the Mission Bay arena ready by 2018.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the developments of the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings new arenas for Sportstalk