Warriors take next step in effort to build San Francisco arena

It's looking more and more like the Golden State Warriors will uproot from Oakland to San Francisco at some point in the not-so-distant future.

Hellbent on erecting a state-of-the-art waterfront arena in downtown San Francisco, the Warriors came to several preliminary agreements with political leaders in the city. These agreements also include the world-renowned University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center — a major hurdle for the organization to overcome during its relocation efforts.

“I’m happy to announce that we’ve reached a consensus on the most critical issues, and now we’re ready to move forward – together,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said a about the agreements, via CSN Bay Area. “For residents and visitors alike, San Francisco is already one of the world’s greatest cities. With these agreements and solid working partnerships in motion, Mission Bay will now be home to UCSF, one of the finest medical institutions in the world, and the world-champion Golden State Warriors at a state-of-the-art, privately funded events center.”

Getting political leaders in the state of California to come to some sort of a consensus on any professional sports complex has been like pulling teeth. Just ask both the Oakland Athletics and Oakland Raiders locally in Northern California as well as the San Diego Chargers a bit down south.

While Mayor Lee spoke in absolutes, there are obviously further steps to this process — steps that need to be taken before the Warriors can start putting a shovel to the ground in San Francisco.

The arena project, which would be built using private funds in San Francisco's Mission Bay District, will now go through the generic environmental impact report — something every stadium project must pass through. In addition to this, San Francisco's Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure still has to approve the project.

More so than any other arena/stadium project that's reached this stage in California, there seems to be more optimism here. It could be because the arena is going to be privately funded — taking any decision away from the voters and not forcing the citizenry to foot some of the bill.

It could also have to do with the fact that this venue will act as an events center in addition to a basketball arena. Even as one of the most popular cities in the world, San Francisco doesn't boast a large-scale indoor venue to host concerts and other entertainment events. Heck, the Bay Area itself is limited in this scope with Oracle Arena in Oakland and the SAP Center in San Jose as the two most legitimate indoor venues today.

Considering the Warriors already purchased this plot of land and the environmental review is expected at some point prior to the end of the calendar year, this project is on the verge of being fast tracked. With the franchise planning to open this arena in time for the 2018-19 season, construction is expected to start some time next year.

Check out Vincent's other work on eDraft.com and follow him on Twitter @VincentFrankNFL.