Warriors May Need Backup for Arena Plan

Mayor Ed Lee calls it his "legacy" project.

The Port of San Francisco says it's 13 acres of empty space that needs $100 million worth of work to stay above water.

The Golden State Warriors' plans to build an arena on Piers 30-32 along the San Francisco waterfront look great on paper, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. But getting something built -- and getting it to mesh well with its surroundings -- is something else entirely, the newspaper reported.

The piers, currently used for parking lots, are where Lee and the Warriors want to built a new arena. Physically, it will fit, according to the Chronicle's John King: the pier is 626 feet wide and 937 feet long; new basketball arenas are typically 550 feet by 450 feet.

But at 125 feet tall, a new arena would be the biggest building in the area by far, the newspaper reported.

The California State Lands Commission will make a crucial call as to whether the arena blocks public access to the water. If the commission makes that call and kiboshes the Piers 30-32 idea, the Warriors may be able to build on two sites in Mission Bay: one on land owned by Salesforce.com, and another on land near AT&T Park, the newspaper reported.