i have one question about the stadium issue

[ninerlvr4lyfe]

now, why cant we just upgrade the stick???

can someone take the time to really break it down for me, i mean let me know exactly why we cant just update the stick with the 800mill.. and i hope its more than just about the road to and from the stick...

i really am thankful for you guys breakin it down for me!! im sorry for it to be such a stupid question, i just would really like to know!

if this needs to be placed in a different Section.. please do so.. Thanks

[ethanh]

Here is the 49ers answer, but obviously they want it in SC so they are not going to say it could work.
Why not remodel the team’s current stadium and stay at Candlestick Point?
The 49ers spent a considerable amount of time and effort evaluating a variety of remodel options for our current stadium. Ultimately, we decided that remodeling the stadium was not practical given the age and condition of the structure, along with the extensive amount of work required.


http://www.supportourniners.com/FAQ.php#anchor23

[Nevyn]

now, why cant we just upgrade the stick???

can someone take the time to really break it down for me, i mean let me know exactly why we cant just update the stick with the 800mill.. and i hope its more than just about the road to and from the stick...

i really am thankful for you guys breakin it down for me!! im sorry for it to be such a stupid question, i just would really like to know!

if this needs to be placed in a different Section.. please do so.. Thanks

There are a number of problems with remodelling. Among them, candlestick was designed as a baseball park, and there are infrasturture and design issues with the stadium. Assuming you make a plan that resolves all that, where do the niners play until the remodelling is done? Oakland?

[TheWiz]

1) It's over 50 years old. Maybe that isn't a situation for other parks. But for this one it is. It's built on a fairly unstable location for such a large structure and it was poorly built to start with. Less than 5 years after it was built there were already complaints about how bad the foundation was.

2) It was built for Baseball. Slight difference when you're talking about 40k baseball fans. Then you put another sport in there as well. More stands built, a large tower along a side leaning on the stands as well. This structure pulled double duty for over half its current lifespan. If you can get 50 years out of a ballpark that's a deal. They've gotten 80+ years of pro sports in one stadium, that's pretty impressive.

3) No remodel is going to be acceptable. Lipstick on a pig, more or less. The team barely ushered through a deal to remodel Candlestick that would've kept it viable until around 2015-2020 but far from state of the art.

You've got three choices.
-You could skirt the expenses and add in bells and whistles that make it look fresh but will not be top of the line. A brand new megascreen, an extra luxury tower, more stores along the outside, remodeled bathrooms, etc. It would be a band-aid for 10-15 years, tops. It wouldn't even be a full renovation, it would mostly just be spit-shining everything and replacing what it broken. Then 15 years from now it may cost many times more to build a new stadium than it does now, inflation adjusted.

4) Destroying the location entirely poses many more problems. Where do they play in the mean time? The team would be without a home for probably 2-3 seasons. Even after you conquer that problem you've got to finance it. See, a top class structure on that site is going to cost just as much if not more than Santa Clara. Meanwhile, the city also doesn't want to give the team a dime. So the team would need to spend more money, be relocated and earn less money for a couple of years, and all to stay at Candlestick?

5) You can always try to build elsewhere on the site. Except you've got to do all of the road and infrastructure work one offseason. You stay at Candlestick but the parking lot will be cut in half. Fans are coming in on buses from city lots and enduring big traffic jams for 2-3 years. Even then, the costs remain the same. The only difference being that demolishing Candlestick will be faster and easier.

See, the team did try to stay at Candlestick. The stadium itself is in such bad shape, remodeling it is like suggesting putting a new engine in a burnt out, rusted over Ford Pinto. It may run better but the body itself is about to fall to pieces. Meanwhile, the city as a whole still cannot pass financing. The best offer we had involved a world record sized, potentially impossible to build parking garage where the stadium currently is located. But the team found that Santa Clara offers better parking options than that plan (debatable) and they find the site better than Candlestick for many reasons including traffic, district it's located in, and location compared to team headquarters.

[Coldrain85]

The design of Candlestick was ill conceived from the get go It was touted as "state of the art" when it was built, but in reality it was never even good for baseball, much less football. Most of the seats were too far from the field. Even as it is now, the number of good seats is relatively small when you consider the seating capacity.

I'm going to wait until the site of the new stadium becomes official before I put any more energy into this topic. Regardless of where in the Bay Area the new stadium is located though, I'll be glad to be somewhere other than Candlestick Point.

[Hobbes2d]

Good luck with Santa Clara, many people here don't want a stadium. Plus the stadium site would be a horrible location. People complain about traffic now at the Stick, if the stadium went in where they want it to go right now by Great America, it would be even worse. Hurray for parking garages, way to kill tailgating too. :(

[Fromthe3rdRow]

Boy, I was afraid of that.

As the start of the season looms, so does the invasion of the trolls.


And I suspect, as the team experiences more and more success this year, and attracts more and more attention - we're gonna need even stronger troll repellent!