49ers Stadium

[Yozilla]

So I am not a 49ers fan but I keep an eye on their stadium situation. I have a suggestion for them. Why don't they play at AT&T Park? The San Francisco XFL team drew well, as the Demons were the league’s highest drawing team during the spring of 2001, averaging more than 35,000 fans per game at the stadium. For anyone that watched the XFL, it wasn't the team that brought the people (the Demons were 5-5 plus it was the XFL!), it was the stadium. For the Emerald Bowl, AT&T Park used to have a maximum capacity of 37,000 but the stadium recently saw an increase to 40,184 due to demand for more seats. That proves that the place can draw a crowd for any type of football. Now the NFL's policy openly stated that a 60,000 seat stadium was the minimum capacity for a franchise. But if you look at how the stadium is set up for football:

http://grfx.cstv.com/schoolslt/embl/graphics/HF7I0015.jpg

they could add more seats to the temporary stands in right-field, and they can fill in the lower box seats also in right-field to raise the capacity by maybe 20,000 seats. But of course this all depends on the Giants and if they want to share. For the Niners this would be a good idea I think, so they wouldn't have to move to Santa Clara, nor play in the deteriorating Candlestick Park. This would give them their wish of a modern facility... What do you guys think?

[Yozilla]

Here is the seating chart for the Emerald Bowl. Notice the lower box seats in right-field are blacked out. These seats would be filled for the Niners.

http://grfx.cstv.com/schoolslt/embl/graphics/SFBOWLseatmap.gif

[ATLFalcons]

That really sounds like a feasbile move.

[Yozilla]

Also, here are a few pics of the stadium the Niners want to build:

http://www.sanfrancisco2016.org/media/pr/img/49ers-olympic-impression.jpg

http://www.sanfrancisco2016.org/media/pr/img/49ers-nfl.jpg

http://www.sanfrancisco2016.org/media/pr/img/49ers-olympic.jpg

http://www.stadiumsofnfl.com/future/images/49ers08950.jpg

[Yozilla]

More:

http://www.stadiumsofnfl.com/future/images/49ers08951.jpg

http://www.supportourniners.com/images/stadium_03.jpg

[Yozilla]

One flaw in my idea about AT&T Park regards the center field scoreboard. The seating in right-field would cover up the whole thing.

http://xatal.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/emerald-bowl.jpg

They could do something like the XFL did and create their own:

http://www.spruce.ca/Features/XFL/XFL_Screen1.JPG

Anyone have any ideas about what else they could do?

[Seattle1]

My guess is that what they want is a new football-only stadium, as opposed to simply changing to a different converted baseball stadium. Throw in the fact that the Giants probably wouldn't want to have to go through the whole production of converting the field back and forth in their spiffy new baseball-only stadium toward the end of every season. And the divots, gouges, and wear & tear in the turf that comes with playing an NFL football game. Baseball players don't like it when the ball takes a funny hop on a spot where a 300-pound offensive lineman gouged his cleats in two days before and the grounds crew wasn't able to fix it properly, because let's face they can't catch everything. The XFL played their season in the early spring, almost entirely before the baseball season started so that wasn't much of an issue.

:twocents:

[Seattle1]

Also, here are a few pics of the stadium the Niners want to build:

http://www.sanfrancisco2016.org/media/pr/img/49ers-olympic-impression.jpg

http://www.sanfrancisco2016.org/media/pr/img/49ers-nfl.jpg

http://www.sanfrancisco2016.org/media/pr/img/49ers-olympic.jpg

http://www.stadiumsofnfl.com/future/images/49ers08950.jpg

Hmmm I guess I don't really like the stacks of luxury boxes on the left hand side in those illustrations. Doesn't look quite right to me for some reason. Maybe the lack of symmetry bothers me for some reason. Oh well, whatever, nevermind...

[Chevy114]

The baseball idea wont work the giants would demand too much money and they reason for the new stadium is to make money not lose or break even on the money. Plus like seattle said the annoying factor of the ruined field from football games wouldn't make the baseball team happy.

The stadium they want to build is very plain and the sky boxes on one side remind me of the way the old bucs stadium was, which doesn't appeal to me. But I guess anything is better than 3 com or monster or candlestick!

[KHenry14]

The Yorks wont do anything that doesn't include other development along with the stadium. Meaning the stadium is the loss leader for the real cash cows of Hotel and retail spaces that they want to build along side the new stadium. Problem is that space is limited in the City, thus the dalliances with San Mateo county locations.

But as stadiums go, the 'Stick isn't bad for football. It's just old and creaky now.

And there is no way that the Yorks would want to play at ATT. They can draw a LOT more fans at the 'Stick at a lot lower rent.

[Chevy114]

Interesting points, it's always good to hear the real story from locals!

[boise49erfan]

I would think there is less than a 0% that the Giants and Niners will ever share a stadium again.

[PeteU]

Mays (ATT) Field is still way too small, and I don't think it is practical to be able to shoehorn in 20,000 seats in the right field area...that's a lot of seats and very little space.

Besides, even if they could, the layout isn't very condusive to football. It's okay for the Emerald Bowl--a minor bowl game, and the more modern and scenic amenities are preferable to Candlestick. But bowl games get a good chunk of their crowd from tourists out of town looking for a vacation as well as a chance to see their college team. Going to an attractive stadium (albiet clearly one designed primarily for baseball) is part of the draw. The 49ers are the home team of San Francisco, so there's less of a tourist draw.....and if they want to see Mays Field, they can just go to a Giants game and see the place as it was designed to have been seen...as a baseball field.

[Pelt]

Latest news - ARTICLE (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/09/BA8R1DSN2E.DTL)

Santa Clara and the San Francisco 49ers can now begin pounding out the details for construction of a $937 million stadium, but San Francisco officials will be in the wings, waiting and hoping for the deal to collapse.

Stadium backers won a resounding victory Tuesday night when 60 percent of Santa Clara voters backed Measure J, which put the city solidly behind a construction plan that calls for the stadium to be open for the 2014 season.

Team president and CEO Jed York said he is "absolutely confident" the Santa Clara stadium will be built and dismissed any suggestion that the team and the planned stadium authority, which will be formed this summer, will have any trouble coming up with the hundreds of millions needed for the project.

But Mayor Gavin Newsom and other supporters of a proposed San Francisco home for the 49ers said the election was the expected triumph of the team's $4 million-plus campaign effort, arguing that, in the mayor's words, "the stadium plan is built on shaky economic ground."

The city, meanwhile, is moving ahead with plans for a 69,000-seat stadium as part of the Hunters Point Shipyard redevelopment project but will hedge its bet with alternative plans to put housing and commercial development on the site if the 49ers flee to the South Bay.

"When the Santa Clara plan falls apart, San Francisco stands ready to welcome its 49ers home," Newsom said. "But we will not wait forever."

The Board of Supervisors still must vote on the redevelopment project, most likely in July. The stadium site can remain an option for the 49ers until 2017, said Kofi Bonner, a vice president for Lennar, the project's developer.

Plenty of obstacles remain for a Santa Clara stadium, said Carmen Policy, a former 49ers president who now serves as a consultant for Lennar.

He pointed to a lawsuit filed by Cedar Fair, owners of the neighboring Great America amusement park, fewer stadium construction dollars from the NFL and a sputtering economy that has left some of the newest football stadiums unable to find a partner willing to pay for naming rights, a major part of the financial plan for the Santa Clara stadium.

But the proposed San Francisco stadium faces many of the same problems it did back in 2006, when the 49ers rejected it as a replacement for the aging Candlestick Park, York said.

The San Francisco site is land that still is being cleaned of contamination by the Navy, while the Santa Clara stadium would be built where a parking lot now sits. Santa Clara provides better access for fans, has hotels willing to supply $35 million in tax money and has infrastructure that San Francisco hasn't even started to build, York said.

The team has created a Web site, www.49ersNewStadium.com, designed for potential season ticket holders at the planned stadium. It went online Wednesday.

Stadium construction could begin in 2012.

[Pelt]

I think the design looks like a combination of Philly's Lincoln Financial and Detroit's Ford Field, with all the suites on one side like that.

194

[Chevy114]

Its unique, but not my thing. Just glad they are getting a new one!

[KHenry14]

The team has been down this road before with nothing being done, so until they break ground, I wouldn't count on this stadium actually happening.

Gavin Newsom is still holding out for a spot in the city, and there is a big chunk of money sitting in an account for the stadium. But if the Yorks want Santa Clara, there's nothing Newsom can do to keep the team in the City.