Adam Lauridsen, who writes Fast Break, a Warriors fan blog, broke the news on Sunday, saying that the team plans on making the announcement sometime this week.
Lacob had this quote about the prospected arena in San Francisco just last year.
"The potential for building an arena near AT&T Park is very exciting," Lacob told the San Francisco Chronicle in December 2011. "The Giants have done some remarkable things over there. It's a great ballpark that revitalized an entire part of the city."The state-of-the-art arena will reportedly be built on piers 30 and 32, the same piers the X Games was located on in 1999 and 2000. The location is between the Bay Bridge and AT&T Park.
The arena will be privately funded and include around 1,000 parking spaces.
According to CSN Bay Area's Matt Steinmetz, Lacob and Guber were at San Francisco City Hall, meeting with mayor Ed Lee about the project. Lee also sent a letter signed by all 11 members of the Board of Supervisors expressing a desire for the team to relocate to San Francisco.
The City of Oakland made this statement on Monday.
“We are still in direct dialogue with the Warriors about the opportunity to build a new arena. We have always been aware that they are exploring all their options, including a San Francisco site. We continue to believe that Coliseum City offers the best new home to the Warriors, Oakland A’s and Oakland Raiders.”Owner Joe Lacob neither confirmed or denied the report, replying to SJ Mercury News writer Tim Kawakami's email on Sunday with this response.
"We are not prepared to make any announcements at this time."Evidently, they were on Monday, with the announcement of Tuesday's press conference.
We will be sure to find out all the bits and pieces associated with this project. The presumed main question regarding the new arena would be parking, which is set to include a small parking lot.
A parking garage or underground parking could be created along with the arena in order for parking to be accessible to the multitude of fans that should be making their way to piers 30 and 32 in the near future.
The Warriors, despite losing seasons, managed to consistently sellout their games this season. The conflict here would be can the Warriors continue to sellout in San Francisco?
It would be a new brand of basketball with a new brand of fans, and odds are the attraction to the team would continue with the extra 30 minute-drive to the San Francisco piers.
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