Golden State Warriors News Roundup: #Roaracle Gets Respect, Mission Bay Seems A Worthy Future Replacement

Golden State Warriors News Roundup: #Roaracle Gets Respect, Mission Bay Seems A Worthy Future Replacement (Photo: @djdsharp Instagram account)

The day before Game 3, reports came out that the Warriors’ front office had purchased land in the Mission Bay area just south of AT&T Park, abandoning the franchise’s hopes for a new arena at Piers 30/32.

Jonah Owen Lamb of the San Francisco Examiner:

A looming political battle and the prospect of slogging through a Byzantine San Francisco regulatory process could have been enough for the Warriors to abandon their ideal vision for a waterfront arena. But instead, the death knell was a mere phone call.
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That call came about six weeks ago, when Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff phoned Warriors CEO Joe Lacob, said team President Rick Welts.
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Benioff had a piece of land to sell, and he wanted to know if the Warriors were interested. His company’s plans for the site had been jettisoned now that it was gearing up to occupy half of the future Transbay Tower.
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The Mission Bay site had been eyed by the Warriors before, team spokesman Nathan Ballard said, but the cost had been too prohibitive.
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Still, that was before the waterfront arena’s costs kept jumping and the plans ran into the political and planning logjam that is San Francisco.
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Thus, negotiations for Mission Bay began.
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“It was a very high-level, spirited negotiation that got us to the right place in the end for both proprietors,” Welts said.

#Roaracle, the affectionate nickname for Oracle Arena, once known as Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena before its renovation in 1996-97, is the second-oldest arena in the NBA — the Sacramento Kings‘ Sleep Train Arena is the oldest — and provides an intimate setting where the concrete walls help make it one of the loudest arenas in the league.

In comparison to the ultra-modern home of the Clippers, the Staples Center, #Roaracle is exactly that: louder and more intimate. The new San Francisco arena slated for Mission Bay will also retain that intimate feel.

Ramona Shelbourne of ESPNLosAngeles.com:

Welts said that it’s important to the franchise to preserve as much about what makes Oracle Arena one of the best home courts in the NBA.
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“We’re spending a lot of time with the facility itself to do everything possible to replicate what we think is a really special atmosphere for our games at Oracle,” Welts said.
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“The first assignment we gave the architects was to make sure that every seat in the new building is as close or closer than the comparable seat at Oracle. We’re doing that by actually making the building smaller. We’re going from 19,000 seats to 18,000 seats.”

Prior to Game 3, Oracle Arena was roundly praised by both the Golden State Warriors as well as their Southern California visitors, the Los Angeles Clippers. Afterwards, the hype met expectations, even though the Warriors lost.

Jessica Kwong of the San Francisco Examiner:

“These people are energetic, enthusiastic,” Jackson said. “This will be different than L.A., with all due respect. This place will be off the charts in terms of the energy in the building.”
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Wearing the golden “Loud. Proud. Warriors” T-shirts handed out to fans, Union City resident Dave Rodrigues, 59, began shouting, “Beat L.A.” starting half an hour before tipoff.
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“It’s different times for different teams to have different dynasties,” he said.

Vinny Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News:

I’m not going to lie, Oracle was all that and more.
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From the moment I walked in three hours before tip-off and heard a live band covering the Gap Band and Michael Jackson, I knew this was unlike any place I’ve been.
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And by the time the fans — 99 percent clad in those bright yellow shirts screaming Loud. Proud. Warriors. — filled up Oracle and grooved to the Old School mix by an in-house D.J. right up to tip-off, it was clear this place is special.
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Then came the loud boos for the Clippers, the electrifying pregame introductions of the Warriors — complete with a Warriors flag-carrying dance group that hyped the crowd up even more.
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An finally, a deafening chorus of Beat L.A. Beat L.A. Beat L.A.
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It was the dance club meets the NBA playoffs meets WWE.
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It was loud. It was proud.
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And it was all Warriors.
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Last time I checked, though, nobody ever hit a three from a club level seat in section 112.
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And there isn’t an arena loud enough in the world to block an open jumper.
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So while the Clippers clearly had to deal with the elements of Oracle on Thursday, they didn’t really have to actually play against it.
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Believing otherwise is to let the mere concept of something dig so deep into your psyche, it’s beaten you even before you step on the court.
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All of which added to the intrigue of this series, not to mention the challenge for a Clippers team that, for all its recent accomplishments, is not yet playoff savvy.
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The Clippers openly embraced the power that is Oracle, acknowledging it, respecting it and praising it.
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What they didn’t do is give in to it.