49ers Moving To Santa Clara: City Council Approves Contract For New Stadium (PHOTOS)

On Tuesday night, the 49ers' move to Santa Clara became official. And the new plan will put the stadium opening date a season ahead of schedule -- meaning the 49ers will play only two more seasons at Candlestick Park.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Santa Clara City Council voted 5-1 to support an $878.6 million contract to joint venture Turner/Devcon Construction. The deadline for the project is August 2014.

(SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS)

And that's a serious deadline. According to CBS, if the stadium doesn't open before the first 2014 exhibition game, Turner/Devcon will pay $6 million per game missed. However, the company will receive a $5 million bonus for finishing at least a week ahead of schedule.

The accelerated deadline was reportedly at the request of the team.

"Like any other construction project where funding is being distributed throughout the construction time, the less time it takes, the less interest you have to pay," said Santa Clara Spokesman Dan Beerman to the Examiner. "The Niners saw the value in trying to keep things on a timely path."

The luxurious new 68,500-seat stadium will serve as a welcomed -- and much deserved -- relief for the 49ers, who encountered an embarrassing power outage this season at Candlestick. The state-of-the-art, billion-dollar stadium will include details like 160 luxury suites, 9,000 club seats, local wines and gourmet amenities, a 13,600-square-foot scoreboard, 370 concession stands, spacious indoor-outdoor plazas with valley views and 40,000 parking spaces.

Check out renderings of the new stadium in our slideshow below:

Comments

[Mr Anonymous]

04:00 PM on 02/19/2012

Hey, it's called candlestick for a reason.

[happyblackman]

02:25 PM on 02/19/2012

Are they building this with public money?

[Rick2783]

11:36 AM on 02/19/2012

Maybe now would be a perfect time to update their uniforms and logo. BORING!

[IndependentAndProud]

02:46 PM on 02/18/2012

I was only at Candlestick once. It was the final Giants game before they moved to PacBell Park. I remember thinking way back then (1999) that a new stadium was long overdue. That final game was - appropriately - against the Dodgers. LA kinda spoiled the celebration by beating SF, which was cool.

[Quotidien]

12:38 PM on 02/17/2012

For all of their success over the past 30 years, the 49ers have always had one of the worst and ugliest playing facilites in sports.

It's nice to see that they will finally have a beautiful place to play, with no baseball diamond on the 40 yard line.

Ohh, and I hate the 49ers.

Go Eagles

[slaterlabsmot]

01:53 PM on 04/20/2012

The "Vet" wasn't any better. I can remember a pre season game getting cancelled because of the turf.

[PeterBright]

10:00 AM on 02/17/2012

I'll miss The Stick...worked for CBS Sports on many a broadcast out of there...first saw it on a visit to San Mateo-San Francisco in 1967...She's put in a lot of good years and housed some great events...time marches on.
Peter Bright

[bagelmart]

03:36 AM on 02/17/2012

And what will this cost the taxpayers?

[santaclarastadium]

09:58 PM on 02/16/2012

Interesting news.

Santa Clara Plays Fair has obtained an attorney, Matthew Zinn from Shute, Mihaly, and Weinberfer to represent them in a lawsuit concerning an illegal referendum. Why is the referendum illegal?

a) the petitions did not carry the actual text of the resolutions.
b) the petitions were turned in too late.
c) according to many court cases in California, administrative acts such as funding documents which are derived from legislative ordinances (Measure J), cannot be put on the ballot, see Hopping v. Council of Richmond, Dwyer v. City of Berkeley.

The Malkey decision in the US Supreme Court invalidated a referendum in California, and we all know about Prop. 8.

Shute, Mihaly, and Weinberger act as the attorneys for the Hunters Point project in San Francisco, and the Treasure Island Development Authority, whose board is chaired by Kofi Bonner of Lennar Urban, who is paying the attorneys for Santa Clara Plays Fair. William J White serves as an attorney for the Lennar stadium and Treasure Island project, and is a partner with Shute, Mihaly, and Weinberger. Darivus Anderson and Sam Singer serve as consultants for Lennar, and also have been named with Lennar in an FPPC complaint accusing them of funding the anti stadium legal fund.

[stjoshy]

11:35 PM on 02/16/2012

^wtf is this? another football team moves closer to me in LA. nuff said

[coloagnt]

08:56 PM on 02/16/2012

Honestly, it's long past time that the 49ers go ahead and leave for Santa Clara already. While I appreciate the pros and cons to both sides, the city of San Francisco seems willing and able to say goodbye to the NFL football club, however the metropolitan area (which includes both cities and more) will still be able to cheer on the 49ers. Now about Oakland...?

[Popopnano]

06:44 PM on 02/16/2012

That is such BS

[dfh24]

02:52 PM on 02/16/2012

So, one power outage is embarrassing enough to move a team, what a stupid comment. They have been planning this move for a long time it is all about money, who pays for the stadium, the public usually, and what tax breaks they get. The Giants and Jets play in New Jersey, The Partiots are no longer in Boston and haven't been for a long time the only thing here will be, do they keep their San Francicso logo

[Justin Satzman]

02:49 PM on 02/16/2012

How much do you want to bet that it will not be called SF Stadium. It will be (insert corporate name) Stadium/Park/Field.

[MrStat1]

03:46 PM on 02/16/2012

That is how it is done. What don't you understand about that? It is called naming rights fees.

[ZeroCoke]

04:16 AM on 02/18/2012

LOL. did you seriously go off the artist rendering as the actual name of the stadium?

[jhades666]

02:14 PM on 02/16/2012

i think a professional team thats connected to a world class city, should stay in said world class city! the giants did it and there doing fine. think of the joy of someone looking out on the vistas of the santa clara housing developments thinking...i really would rather be looking at the pacific ocean or a world class city skyline! instead hey look its ihop and great america.

[MrStat1]

03:47 PM on 02/16/2012

Then don't go to the games or watch the team if you feel that way. No one is forcing you to be a fan.

[hawaiiview]

07:11 PM on 02/17/2012

Which Giants are you referring to? The NY to SF Giants of the NY to NJ Giants? Seems important.

[baxtron]

02:11 PM on 02/16/2012

don't lose hope SF. MN is threatened with the Vikings moving to CA every day of the week.

[Paulb10486]

02:29 PM on 02/19/2012

Losing hope? The niners are moving a half hour away from their current stadium. Most San Franciscans overwhelmingly approve

[keithincali]

12:57 PM on 02/16/2012

This sucks, those in the North Bay area are hosed. Should I now be a Raiders fan...shivers.

[Paulb10486]

02:31 PM on 02/19/2012

Hosed? So you would rather continue going to games at the dilapidated 'stick?

[keithincali]

05:18 PM on 02/19/2012

No, but they could have built a new stadium in the city instead of going to San Jose.