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Friday, April 3, 2009
S.F. has chance to finally build an arena
San Francisco Business Times - by Stanford M. Horn

I’m holding in my hand a very formidable San Francisco Redevelopment Agency brochure. It has many impressive renderings of what the agency points to as San Francisco’s most important upcoming structure: a spectacular 20,000-seat downtown sports-entertainment-cultural-event-convention arena designed by one of Japan’s most renowned architects.

It’s dated 1969.

Now, 40 years later — and 120 million patrons too late to have helped the city’s economy — the Redevelopment Agency has an opportunity to make good on its promise.

San Francisco is the only major American city without a modern arena. Thus, San Franciscans get no big rock concerts, no indoor sports, no tournaments, no dog shows, no circuses, no political conventions, no sports trials, no family spectacles, no Barbra Streisand, no Irish dancers, no ethnic festivals, no Harlem Globetrotters, etc. The agency’s 40-year goal of bringing more pedestrian life, economic activity, attractions and jobs downtown via an arena remains just that: a goal.

Now the agency has a chance to champion an arena — in conjunction with the new Transbay Terminal: specifically, on the square block — bounded by Howard, Folsom, Main and Beale streets — that will soon house the temporary bus plaza.

The most successful arenas, like Madison Square Garden, are part of rail station and subway complexes. Since most events are held in evenings or on weekends, they provide revenue to transit agencies when they’d be running sparsely occupied trains. Instead, the agency plans more housing and a small park there. What an unimaginative concept for that strategic site!

How much more fruitful for the city’s well-being would a striking arena be than a few hundred additional apartments in concrete block structures? The alternative might be an iconic distinctively-shaped arena of modest height letting in lots of sunshine and open air, a new San Francisco icon. The planned park would make a wonderful, highly used entrance to such an arena, especially if were just steps from the new train station.

Privately financed AT&T Park created an unprecedented economic stimulus for San Francisco. A privately-financed arena could be expected to provide an even greater economic stimulus. The idea has grown even better with age and its linkage to the west’s main transit complex.


Stanford M. Horn writes on transportation and development issues.

Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/...ditorial3.html