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.
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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:
