Arena design 'work in progress'

The Golden State Warriors want their fans to know that their team won't be playing in an arena soon to be known as the "The Bowl."

Renderings from Manica Architecture, the lead designer of the Warriors' new arena, presented Thursday at the local citizens advisory committee went viral and made national news earlier this week after a San Francisco real estate blog called attention to the fact that it looked like a giant toilet bowl.

"This was presented at the meeting as very much a work in progress so that we could put the size of the building in context," Warriors spokesman P.J. Johnston told ESPN.com. "In the next few months, we will continue to show much more and the arena design will continue to be refined."

The proposed 18,000-seat arena, which is scheduled to open in 2018, will sit on land eight miles west of the Warriors' current arena in Oakland, in an area of San Francisco known as Mission Bay.

"This was clearly a reminder of the speed and fury of the Internet," Johnston said. "This story spread like wildfire and became part of the news cycle. In the end, we will build a great home for the Warriors in an incredible location and we will meet the expectations of our fans."