SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. Nov. 5, 1994 -- San Francisco is a world-class city and expects to attract big events, but two largely unrecognized factors made the difference as NFL owners voted to put the 1999 Super Bowl at Candlestick Park.
* The emergence of the 49ers as the power in the power in the NFL, with four Super Bowl wins and eight appearances in the NFC championship game in the past 13 seasons.
Let's face it: Before Bill Walsh arrived on the scene, this was hardly a hotbed of pro football interest. The 49ers had had only momentary flurries of success, such as the three straight divisional titles in the 1970-72 seasons. Even that success had been followed by disaster, with the exception of the 1976 season, for the rest of the decade.
In other areas of the country, interest can remain high even if the local team isn't faring well: New Orleans is a rime example. But that has never been true of California cities, because there are too many other things to do if the local team is losing.
The NFL had some experience with that: The first Super Bowl, in Los Angeles, was far from a sellout. As attractive as San Francisco itself is to the owners, they wouldn't have put the Super Bowl in this area if the 49ers hadn't raised interest in the sport.
* The fact that Candlestick, once designed as a baseball stadium, has become a football stadium.
The NFL would never have returned to Stanford. The owners enjoyed their week in the city, but they hated having to sit in the stands for the game because there are no luxury boxes at Stanford Stadium, which was built in 1923 and outmoded not long after that.
Owners had enough of that. After all, rich me (and one woman) own NFL teams; They can afford to visit San Francisco on their ownm, without having to sit on bench seats in 45-degree January weather.
But at the time of the first Super Bowl, Candlestick was not a reasonable option, because there weren't enough seats. Since then, enough seats have been added to bring the capacity to 71,000, enough for a Super Bowl. In addition, Candlestick has the luxury boxes to which owners have been accustomed.
Adding those seats as detracted even more from Candlestick as a baseball stadium, because passageways from aisle to aisle have been eliminated to make room for the seats. The city would be better served if a separate baseball park were built for the Giants (another subject for another day).
The 49ers' success, of curse, has made adding seats a feasible plan; indeed, there are still about 20,000 people on the waiting list for season tickets despite the expansion. When the 49ers are the sole client at Candlestick, they'll be able to model the stadium even more to the football operation.
I'm wary of the inflated figures that are always tossed around -- sums like $200 million -- because they always include money spent by residents, who would be spending money anyway. But there's no question that the Super Bowl will provide a big boost to the economy of San Francisco and, to a lesser extent, the entire Bay Area.