Opinion: New stadium talk growing old for Niners fans
By Aaron Turner
STAFF WRITER
It was early morning. Curled in bed, still half asleep, my radio was tuned to KNBR, the same station I’ve been waking up to every morning since I was 12 years old. Then, over the airwaves, a woman’s voice delivered the dreadful news. “The 49ers may soon be on their way out of San Francisco.”
By the end of that sentence I was wide awake. My heart pounding, images of the Baltimore Colts packing up camp at midnight flashed through my head. My beloved Niners, the only original professional franchise in San Francisco, were ditching the City after a glorious 60 years?
Then I listened to the rest of the news flash, and my fear was soon replaced by confused indignation. Stadium plan negotiations between Gavin Newsom and the York Family had dissolved. As a result, it was announced the 49ers would instead be moving to Santa Clara.
Talk of a new stadium for the 49ers is nothing new to our ears.
In 1997, voters approved a measure which would allocate $100 million for the building of a new stadium with an attached shopping mall. However, mayor Willie Brown’s inability to get a capable construction company or secure economic support from city supervisors allowed stadium plans to fall by the wayside.
Playing in Candlestick Park is analogous to driving an old Packard sedan. Yes, it brings back nostalgic memories of an age once so familiar, keeping a piece of history alive. Ultimately however, you realize what you have is a decrepit relic, an object better left to pictures and memories rather than attempts at any practical use. Let’s face it, Candlestick Park was old by the time Joe Montana suited up for his first-ever career game in 1979.
Aside from being less aesthetically pleasing than Batmale Hall, Candlestick has been on the verge of being a perennial danger zone for decades. Reports of mold in the rest rooms and locker rooms have been surfacing for years, as have numerous structural deformities resulting from 51 years of operation. That’s not even mentioning the third baseline that dominated midfield for so many years or the ugly cutaway bleachers that fill one side of the stadium.
The need for a new stadium is beyond evident. It is glaring. Gavin Newsom first failed by planning a replacement in the Candlestick parking lot. Next, he decided to dub the Hunter’s Point Shipyards, a site that has been designated as a toxic waste zone, as the new home for the stadium. Now we hear reports of Newsom and Senator Diane Feinstein searching high and low in the city limits for a suitable location. Still, the Yorks seem adamant about the 49ers eventual move to Santa Clara, a city that already approved a tentative measure allowing a stadium to be built near the team headquarters.
Should the 49ers move to Santa Clara, it would be more of an annoyance than a loss to me. After all, the Washington Redskins play in a stadium that is located in Prince George’s County, Maryland, an area 10 minutes south of Washington. Land Shark Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, is situated a good 20 miles north of Miami city limits. Both New York football teams also play a good half hour away from their namesakes.
If Newsom makes good on his threat to sue the team over naming rights, it could turn an already messy situation into an outright fiasco. While a new stadium is badly needed, common sense by both sides is more crucial at this stage of the game.
I would be quite happy watching another three or four seasons of football at Candlestick if it meant a suitable location was being determined in San Francisco. As for the possible move to the South Bay, only time will tell. If a stadium is ultimately completed in Santa Clara, Newsom would be an idiot to sue over such a futile point. Not only would it come across as a classless, selfish move, it would ultimately solve nothing.
As long as the 49ers remain in the Bay Area, the name San Francisco will forever be the first two words spoken when referring to the team. No matter what neighborhood, suburb or county hosts 49ers home games, what both Newsom and the Yorks need to realize is that real football fans will still show up faithfully every year as they have done now for 62 years and counting.