New Warriors arena designs no longer look like a toilet
The Golden State Warriors are the hottest team in the NBA, winners of their last 13 games (a franchise record) and holders of the best record in the league at 18-2. It’s an exciting time for the franchise, and not just because of the product on the court. With an improving squad and strong local support, owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber can envision a future in which they oversee one of the premier organizations in basketball. When they move to a new arena San Francisco by the end of the decade, they can plan on bringing in even more profits.
The one problem with the plan is that the designs for the new SF arena made it look like a classic porcelain toilet. The resemblance was uncanny, so much so that you wondered if it was done on purpose. Sure, it was very unlikely that the finished product would look quite so off-white and toilet-ish (look, there are not a lot of adjectives I can use here), but it was at least good for a fun joke at the time.
The Warriors and the architecture firm Snøhetta have released new, more detailed designs of the new arena and entertainment complex located in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood. As you can see, the renderings do not make the arena look like a giant toilet:
The franchise also issued a press release on the new renderings and further plans for the development:
“We believe this plan is a perfect fit for Mission Bay, for San Francisco, and for the entire region,” said Joe Lacob, Co-Executive Chairman and CEO of the Warriors. “Our goal is to not only build a world-class arena for our team and our fans, but also create a vibrant place that residents and visitors will want to enjoy, whether on game days or any other day.”
The new entertainment center will be built on 11 acres of private, inland property, bounded by Third, 16th and South Streets, and Terry Francois Blvd.
“The new Warriors sports and entertainment center is going to activate Mission Bay in new ways and create a 21st century fan experience and a premier entertainment experience for concert and convention-goers,” said Co-Executive Chairman Peter Guber. “It will serve as a ‘digital’ meeting place, with state-of-the-art amenities, unbelievable sightlines and new views of the Bay.”
Details include more than 18,000 seats in the arena, a public plaza that exceeds the size of the landmark Union Square, and a public park to be populated by children on one of the city’s three unbearably beautiful days per year:
The Warriors have presented this plan as part of a larger scale development of the Mission Bay neighborhood, which is clear in renderings that include new buildings identified by a translucent cast.
But the substance of the proposal detracts from the real story here — the arena definitely doesn’t look like a toilet. Luckily for us, team president Rick Welts spoke on the matter (via SB Nation):
It’s a very smooth move by Welts to credit fans for identifying the prior designs’ essential toilet-ness when it was obvious to anyone who looked at the plans. In a project that has already been delayed and changed by activist outcry, the Warriors are now doing their best to throw citizens a bone, if only by flattering their intelligence. That’s what I call effective community outreach.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
