by Jerry Feitelberg

The Golden State Warriors met with the Mission Bay Citizens Advisory Committee Thursday evening August 14th to discuss the preliminary site design concept for their new arena. The meeting lasted ninety minutes and over one hundred people jammed the meeting room to find out about the plans for the arena and to ask questions about the project.

The Warriors bought parcels 29,30,31 and 32 in Mission Bay. The parcels are bounded on the North by South St(no pun intended), Terry Francois Boulevard on the east, Third St on the west and 16th st on the south. The plan is to build an 18,000 seat arena slightly off-center with a height of 135 feet. 500,000 square feet of office space will also be built along with 55,000 to 90,000 square feet available for retail. The Warriors are setting aside a 3.2 acres plaza as public space. In addition, an underground garage will be built for 700 spaces. Truck deliveries will be made via entry into the underground parking facility.

The Arena is being funded entirely by the Warriors and no public funds will be used to build the arena, The W’s, in order to finance the project, are making the arena available about 55 family shows a year as well as 41 Warrior games, 31 other rentals, concerts, other sporting events and pre-season Warrior games.

The plan is hoping to energize and activate Bayfront Park. The Warriors claim that there are plentiful transit options within a short walking distance. For example, the Caltrain station is just a short 10 to 15 minute walk from 4th and King. There is also excellent pedestrian and bike access. People can take Muni and the Warriors announced that the Central Subway project should begin operating in 2019 and that should help with some of the transit issues. The Warriors expect to start play at the start of the 2018-2019 season.

After the presentation, questions were fielded by the staff to answer the concerns of the neighborhood. Many of the people that live in the neighborhood told horror stories of traffic congestion and trash in the neighborhood following a Giants ‘game. It seemed to be worse especially after a day game as people who work in the area could not leave to go home or had to let their employees leave 2 to 3 hours early.

The Warriors staff reminded the people that the Warrior games start at 7:30 and an end time of the game is much more predicable than a baseball game. They also said that the crowd was just about 40% of what the Giant crowd is and that they have made plans for traffic control in the area so that people will not, hopefully, have too many problems leaving the arena.

There was concern that the 700 parking spaces under the arena was not sufficient to handle the demand . In addition, there is concern that there will be more development in the area and that parking will be at a premium. The Warriors could not answer all the questions but are optimistic that the plan will be a success. The Warriors will present a transportation management plan and pre and post event management strategies at the meetings in October.