For at least the past two years, the San Francisco 49ers have bet the house on Santa Clara as the best place to build a gleaming new stadium for NFL Sundays.
But if recent polls prove wrong and Santa Clara voters on June 8 reject a proposed stadium project, the 49ers, while staggered like any gambler who loses that big bet, will still have plenty of chips to play in their quest to replace their antiquated home at Candlestick Park.
San Francisco, Oakland and even Los Angeles area interests are ready and waiting with stadium possibilities for the 49ers if Measure J goes down in Santa Clara, which would be an upset given polls showing a majority of likely voters favor building a $937 million stadium on a parking lot adjacent to Great America theme park.
San Francisco and Oakland officials in particular appear to be vying for the 49ers’ attentions, both certain they offer the best locations and financial prospects for a new stadium even if Santa Clara voters approve the stadium measure.
“If this doesn’t pass,” said former 49ers President Carmen Policy, who is consulting for the developer of a proposed commercial and residential project at San Francisco’s Hunters Point that includes a stadium, “they have to look elsewhere. And we are the logical place for them to look.”
Advocates of luring the 49ers to Oakland, possibly in a two-team sharing arrangement with the Oakland Raiders, say San Francisco cannot match the East Bay’s transit-friendly location. Niners President Jed York has said in recent months that he would consider Oakland as an option if the Santa Clara project falls through, and Raiders CEO Amy Trask has told the Mercury News that her franchise could work with the 49ers as both teams try to replace two of the oldest stadiums in the league.
“I really believe the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is the best location for a stadium for the Raiders and the 49ers,” said Oakland City Councilman Ignacio de la Fuente, co-chair of the region’s Coliseum Authority.
York is quick to dismiss such speculation, insisting the team is focused entirely on winning the election in Santa Clara and moving forward with the planned 68,500-seat stadium that would open for the 2014 season. And if Measure J fails and the 49ers need to turn to Plan B?
“There’s nothing active,” York said. “If the vote isn’t successful in Santa Clara, we’re going to do everything we can to build a new stadium in Northern California.”
During the campaign, York has made it clear that whether it is Santa Clara or elsewhere in the Bay Area, he does not want to be depicted as a villain to fans, as was the case with Art Modell, who moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in the mid-1990s, or Robert Irsay, who moved the equally beloved Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis in 1984, infamously packing the moving vans in the dark of night to leave town.
As a result, NFL observers consider it unlikely the 49ers would consider the Los Angeles area, where developer Ed Roski has made moves to re-establish a franchise in the City of Industry with a wish list of seven possible NFL teams who need stadiums, including the 49ers. But the option for a proposed $800 million stadium is there.
“They are not seen as a team that would do that,” an NFL executive knowledgeable about stadium issues said of the 49ers. “Around the NFL, around stadium circles, people have assumed the 49ers would find a way to stay in the Bay Area.”
San Francisco certainly has not abandoned hopes of keeping the 49ers. And those hopes center on a sprawling commercial and residential project backed by the Lennar Corp., which has included a stadium in the plans for Hunters Point, pushed by San Francisco city officials. The deal would be privately financed, and would not require a public vote because San Francisco already approved a stadium plan for the area in 1997.
And while relations between the 49ers and San Francisco City Hall have been icy at best, officials say those tensions could ease in the coming years with a new mayor and new Board of Supervisors. City officials say they are ready for the 49ers if the Santa Clara deal collapses.
“No matter what, we believe San Francisco will remain an extremely viable alternative for a new stadium,” said Michael Cohen, head of San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development.
In the end, supporters of a new stadium in Santa Clara consider all the talk of other options just idle chatter. Former 49ers star running back Roger Craig, who is campaigning for Measure J, insists 49ers fans throughout the region will wind up content with a new stadium in Silicon Valley.
“I’m confident it’s going to work out,” said Craig, who now lives in Portola Valley. “It’s in the Bay Area, so history is going to take its course. Just because the stadium is in Santa Clara doesn’t mean people will forget San Francisco. It’s still going to be the San Francisco 49ers.”
Contact Howard Mintz at 408-286-0236.
FALLBACKS FOR 49ers stadium
San Francisco: Lennar Corp. proposes a privately financed stadium (artist”s rendering, above) as part of a huge commercial-residential project in the Hunter”s Point area.
Oakland: Officials are studying a possible new stadium for the Raiders and 49ers around the current Coliseum complex.
Los Angeles: Developer Ed Roski is trying to develop stadium project in City of Industry.
