“The plan [for Hunters/Candlestick Point] includes at least 8,500 housing units, 2 million square feet of office space, an 8,000- to 12,000-seat arena and 700,000 square feet for retail and entertainment uses, including a large grocery store near Highway 101 at Candlestick and a smaller one at Hunters Point.” (S.F.’s Grand Plan For 49ers)
∙ S.F.’s Grand Plan For 49ers [SFGate]
“an 8,000- to 12,000-seat arena”
Is that right? The lowest capacity stadium in the NFL is 60,000.
Whats the deal with those Monstrous condo developments recently built at Candlestick(against the hill and 101) ? How the heck does something like that get through the Planning Commission and the BOS?
Newsom’s Niner’s plan
I wouldn’t count on this ever happening. I smell some desperation in the plan, “Green Parking lots”, African Marketplace, Artists Colony, R&D center” Please
Anyway, I hope the 49ers just move down to Santa Clara where they want to go anyway (just so they stay in the Bay) so we can get on with a neighborhood only plan for HP and Candlestick
Football is better for the suburds
That’s really bright, Zig. Tell those thousands of fans who are happy to spend millions annually in and around that football stadium to go south and spend their $$$ elsewhere. Especially since the neighborhood is currently a thriving, vital center drawing thousands of people daily and adding to the tax base of the city. Excellent!
The “african marketplace” in the Hunters Point Shipyard has been in the official redevelopment plan for years. It smells of the most cynical window dressing to appease a suspicious community, because of course no one really knows what an “african marketplace” in San Francisco would be. Nigerians selling kente cloth? Brazilians selling Santeria candles? Don’t get me started…
But a stadium would be a good use for “Parcel E” at the shipyard, which is the most contaminated part of Hunters Point, and so will never be the location of housing, even after cleanup.
Putting the stadium at Hunters Point rather than Candlestick DOES raise transportation issues, and it will be interesting to see how they try to solve them. They could access the site through the industrial area adjoining Yosemite Slough, and for the few game days a year the traffic probably wouldn’t be that big a deal. Willie had proposed a bridge over the slough from candlestick. That is a total no go though.
fogdog: detail to me how those fans spend millions around the stadium? Football is one of the most insane land uses out there. There are what…12 home games a year. Limited other uses except for monster truck derbies. A massive influx of cars from the burbs demands huge parking lots, which are empty most of the time. For the most part, people buy their food from concessions in the park, then go home. No real positive impact on the surrounding community or businesses.
Properly designed, a baseball stadium or an arena is a different story. But football is a loser.
What about building a short extension on Muni from the current 3rd street rail to the Hunters Point stadium site?
Has anyone considered this?
It would only be a mile or two of extra, above ground rail, so that it shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. Also, with the number of condo dwellers to locate in that area, it would pay for itself. Besides, you can get people to connect from the city/east bay via muni and bart and you can get people to connect from the peninsula/south bay via caltrain and muni.
The 8K to 12K arena I believe is in addition to the main football stadium which is proposed to be in the 80K to 90K capacity range.
Oh curmudgeon — what on earth do you propose as a better alternative for that site? That entire section of the city south of Mission Bay is a complete disaster. It’s acre upon acre of wasted neglected space, a mere mile or so from some of the most expensive and desired property in the entire United States. A stadium — hopefully of superior architectural design — is just the beginning of what should be a massive redesign of the area.
Yeah – let’s push the African-Am community into the water – first we’ll build Third street up – then make sure that there’s no ethnic economic enclave benefiting from it – so we can make room for more starbucks and some fancy schmancy spots for all the people who can afford these condos. We’ll send the 3rd street community into a market place that no one has to see…
Why can’t the money be used to make the 3rd street community become like an Irving or Hayes valley – looks like an economic “relocation” :::Cough::: concentration camp to me.
Oh please. The African American population of the Bayview is not declining because of some insidious plot. It’s declining because longtime, elderly homeowners are choosing to sell their homes (at considerable profit) to Asian families. Neighborhoods change over time…it’s an inevitable as death and taxes.
I think it is has been covered already but 10 games per year is hardly an ecomomic boon for the local residents. I can’t cite a study but I can’t imagine many fans spending money outside of the staduim
With regard to public transit most of the fans come from outside the city and those that do come from SF are unlikley to ride the T for 45 minutes to get to the stadium. The special Muni buses that run to Candlestick today and carry the tiny fraction of fans who want to ride RT seem more adequate. Of course in a world where dollars for transit were unlimited a T spur would be cool
I think the most critical point is the Santa Clara site is superior in everyway. The Yorks want to leave
Now if you want to talk about a shame lets talk about the A’s moving to Fremont. That is tobad as baseball fits into an urban enviroment and actually enhances it. Football staduims are a sea of parking lots around a massive staduim that is used 10 time per year
Damion, I said that the stadium is actually not a bad use for the site (yeah..I have two posts, so it’s confusing). But whenever anyone talks about the “positive economic impact” of a football stadium I get apoplectic and very curmudgeonly. It’s usually the first gambit to spend a couple hundred million public dollars to bolster a private enterprise.
Does this plan, as envisioned reopen the door for the SF Olympic bid, or is that deal dead? I can’t seem to remember – sorry.
The drawing sure seem to me as an Olympic village and stadium.
Unfortunately SF’s bid for the 2016 Olympics is dead (stadium or no stadium) and the USOC should announce the US bid (either LA or Chicago) next month.
Isn’t there toxic or radioactive waste at the shipyards? I visited the artist’s colony there once (“The Point”) and remember seeing signs indicating this.
They should build an arena on the parking lot used by the SF Giants. Build something equivalent to Staples Center in LA and get the Warriors to move there. As for the 49ers, I agree with Glenn Dickey’s proposal to build a stadium on land next to the SF Airport. Plent of transportation access and the airport is right there.
Warriors should move into Moscone Center. Close to transportation and centrally located so all can come into the city and spend those dollars.