The Warriors sent staff to the bridge designers’ offices to get approval to use the plans. T.Y. Lin International loved the idea and allowed the use of renderings and the Warriors took off from there, working to merge the nostalgia-fueled love of the The City logo with the modern take on a bridge. A bridge that wasn’t even built yet.
While some in the Warriors’ design office lobbied for a return to the San Francisco name and using the Bay Bridge as a nod to East Bay fans, the fear of upsetting the fans from Oakland kept the Golden State name in tact across the top of the logo. There was never a consideration of using the Golden Gate Bridge, as the Bay Bridge connected fan bases in both San Francisco and Oakland, but also completely updated a historic look, even if the new logo debuted three years before the bridge opened.