by Amaury Pi Gonzalez and Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–Anti arena opponents Mission Bay Alliance is gearing up to stop two towers from being built at the UCSF location where the Golden State Warriors intend to build their new arena. The Warriors with the new arena plan to include the two towers the Alliance are considering putting a measure on the ballot blocking the Warriors from starting construction.

The opposition bill would be similar to that of the “No Wall on the Waterfront” campaign that stopped the 8 Washington condo plan. A ballot proposal would delay the W’s ground breaking which is planned for next year and could be pushed back until the election is decided on the arena project.

I remember the Oakland A’s trying to move to Fremont and there was opposition in stopping the A’s from moving there. Fremont had 210,000 living there. The space is there for the A’s, the stadium was supposed to be built on the west side of Fremont and BART doesn’t go to that location. The infrastructure is there but my point is there is always going to opposition.

Eventually the Warriors will end up playing in San Francisco, it might take awhile we’ll see what happens. When the Warriors wanted to build on Piers 30-32 there was significant opposition in the waterfront neighborhood because it was going to block the view of the Embarcadero. Mission Bay is the second choice for the Warriors to build in the City to find a site right near UCSF.

Their also building the street car line from Union Square to Mission Bay which is being added onto the existing transportation. They’ll have public transportation BART, Muni and light rail. The big problem that the arena project is going to face is parking because when they had the preliminary meetings on the structure they would have only 750 parking spots at the arena that would house the parking which inadequate for 18,000 people.

Using AT&T Park for example it’s an open air stadium with a beautiful view of the bay, when you build a basketball arena it’s indoors so there is going to be opposition because it’s indoor. I don’t remember much opposition to AT&T Park and we remember how many times the people of San Francisco voted on a new downtown stadium for the Giants and it was voted down.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez and Jerry Feitelberg talk about the opposition to the new Warriors arena on tonight’s podcast at http://www.sportsradioservice.com