The 49ers yesterday trotted out a scale model for their proposed new Santa Clara stadium. From Bruce Newman in the Merc:
(T)he 49ers unveiled another set of drawings and a new scale model of the stadium they hope to build in Santa Clara next to Great America. According to the $987 million project's two lead designers from the architectural firm HNTB, the building itself will be a dazzling showplace of sustainability, and so rich in metaphor that the seats will not be Niner Red, they'll be zinfandel and Bordeaux.
What's the metaphor, playing like you've had one too many?
Here's a video the team posted showing a "flyover" of the model. The little stadium is so realistic you can almost see a miniature Alex Smith throwing a tiny football into the arms of an opposing player in the fourth quarter.
The one thing you won't spy in the model is a Raiders' banner, even though the NFL has strongly suggested the two teams, both in the market for a new home, combine their aspirations and play in the same stadium. (For more on this, listen to Cy Musiker's discussion last month with sports economics academic Roger Noll.)
San Francisco still wants to keep the Niners in town, and Oakland doesn't want to part ways with the Raiders. But, as Mercury News columnist Mark Purdy wrote a couple of weeks ago, those plans may be suited more for fantasy football than any three-dimensional season.
(T)he 49ers' stadium project in Santa Clara is well along the path. Voters there have approved it. The team has begun selling luxury suites at a nearby "preview center." Former 49er quarterback Joe Montana is part of a consortium that has been greenlighted to develop a hotel complex across the street.
One sure thing: San Francisco is not a viable option, despite what you may hear. Former 49ers executive Carmen Policy is being paid by a development company to spin positive pap about a potential stadium at Hunters Point Naval Shipyards, a windblown promontory where radioactive waste was once buried. Not surprisingly, York has put the Hunters Point option on the back burner and informed people that if the Santa Clara project ever collapsed, Oakland was the 49ers' next option, not San Francisco.
For more visualizations of the proposed stadium, fumble on over to the 49ers New Stadium web site, where you'll be treated to a soundscape reminiscent of a coming attraction for a Michael Bay film.