Golden State Warriors Want to Build a New Arena in San Francisco

The Warriors have their eyes set on San Francisco, with plans to build a gleaming new gym there in a few years. Reports the Chronicle: “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 Baysite. ‘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.”