Although tickets don't go on sale until Wednesday, twitter-friendly Niners President and CEO Jed York wants to make sure one lucky member of the faithful gets a seat at the NFC Championship game. In a tweet this afternoon, York wanted to know why he, benevolent rich person that he is, should give one lucky fan four tickets and pregame field passes to this Sunday's matchup with the New York Giants. The best answer (tweeted at him, we assume?) by Tuesday at 5 p.m. wins the Jed York Hashtag Niner Faithful NFC Championship Package. If you're throwing your hat in to the twitter-ring, here's a look at the entries you're already up against: more ›

In the latest and hopefully last bits of finger pointing surrounding Monday's nationally embarrassing Candlestick Park power outages, Mayor Lee and PG&E CEO Anthony Earley have resolved the causes of both incidents. As it turns out, everybody gets to share the blame for leaving all those football fans in the dark. more ›

In a press conference yesterday afternoon, Mayor Lee called Monday night's power outage at Candlestick Park "a national embarrassment." This is, of course, the same Mayor Lee who once called PG&E "a great company that gets it". Unfortunately, PG&E still doesn't seem to get how their lines could be responsible for the outage that put tens of thousands of football fans in the dark and delayed a nationally televised football game. more ›

Although PG&E admitted last night's power outage at Candlestick Park was due to an exploding transformer, the historically volatile power company doesn't want to take the fall for the incident. As a utility company spokesman told the Chronicle a PG&E power line "lost power for an unknown reason" just before the first outage at 5:19 p.m. last night, but the actual problem occurred when a city-owned transfer switch failed to keep a constant flow of electricity. So, let's recap: more ›

Adding to last night's blown-transformer situation at Candlestick Park, Bay City News now reports that San Francisco Police also received a bomb threat at the ballpark prior to kickoff at the Monday Night Football matchup. According to an SFPD spokesman, authorities searched the area around the 'Stick and determined that the phoned-in threat was a fluke, but if we had to guess, we'd pin the prank on a less-than-confident Steelers fan looking to ice out our NFC West Champs. more ›

First hand reports from friends and twitterers at tonight's Niners game against the Steelers are telling us Candlestick Park is currently in complete darkness due to a power outage. No lights means no football and Monday Night Football is on hold until further notice. more ›

While the San Francisco 49ers were gearing up to clinch the NFC West, Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews was confessing to the Chronicle on Saturday that he is just, "not that interested in football." On the other hand, Mayor Matthews is definitely interested in the $850 million dollar bank loan his town has secured from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, and U.S. Bank. (Evil 1% banks, the lot of them.) more ›

While recent anecdotal evidence suggests a generally positive mood in Candlestick Park after the season got off to a rather rocky start for the gameday attendees, it's always good to check the stadium's temperature with a look at the Police reports. Sunday's report: seven total arrested in three separate incidents. By the numbers, that's lower than the average 11-12 arrests per game, but several of those arrested were known criminals and gang members. more ›

(By Daisy Barringer) The San Francisco 49ers—YOUR San Francisco 49ers—are 4-1. Take a moment to enjoy that. To enjoy the fact that the Niners completely dominated Tampa Bay in a 48-3 rout where we showed finesse, heart, efficiency, physicality, and the will to not just win, but completely destroy. Let’s break it down: more ›

The mood in the parking lot at Candlestick Park again turned violent this past Sunday after the Niners handed over their 27-24 loss to the Cowboys. SFPD Officers responding to reports of a fight in the parking lot arrived to find three assault victims - including one security guard - all suffering from painful head injuries. According to investigators, the fight broke out when the first victim would not allow the three suspects to back their vehicle out of a parking space. more ›

Aside from the 30-7 beating the 49ers took in a loss against the Houston Texans Saturday night, by most accounts the game was a relatively calm affair. According to the SFPD the number of arrests and citations for common beer-and-pigskin related offense like public intoxication were back to standard Candlestick Park levels. more ›

SFPD has released a sketch of the suspect wanted for assaulting an 26-year-old San Rafael man in a Candlestick Park men's room during last Saturday's violent preseason 49ers game. The tough guy, who sounds like he should be playing defense rather than throwing punches in the bathroom, is described as a Pacific Islander man in his late twenties, standing between 6'3" and 6'5", roughly 225-260 pounds. more ›

Jed York set the tone for yesterday's press conference with 49ers team officials and Mayor Ed Lee when he told the press, "the degenerate behavior that happened on Saturday is not going to be tolerated." And after confirming rumors we heard yesterday that the team would ask the league to cancel the yearly San Francisco-East Bay rivalry game, York laid out the team's new guidelines for tailgating at Candlestick Park. more ›

Three people are in serious condition at San Francisco General after Saturday night's preseason game between the 49ers and the Raiders turned ugly. Two victims were found shot in the parking lot at Candlestick park around 8 p.m. Saturday night, while the third victim was beaten unconscious in a stadium bathroom around 7:15 p.m. more ›

Just a friendly reminder that football returns to Candlestick Park tomorrow for the regular preseason matchup between the Niners and the dirty, rotten Raiders from across the bay. The game will be Coach Harbaugh's first home game in Candlestick since signing on with the team back in January and all eyes are on QB Alex Smith who's got a short leash after last season's shoddy performance. more ›

Over the twitwires we spotted this mention of Jude Law this a.m., from a patron of the Sports Club L.A. at the Four Seasons: "Ran into Jude Law at the club (the guy's a star!) & think I managed to say something sensible." Could Jude be staying at the Four Seasons? Not that we want to encourage stalking, but, that was a pre-9 a.m. sighting. more ›

Fifty years ago today, a pre-presidential Richard Nixon threw out the first ball on the opening game day of Candlestick Park on April 12, 1960. Originally built to house the San Francisco Giants (before they moved to swankier digs in Mission Bay's AT&T Park in 2000), Candlestick Park, located at the on the chilly western shore of the San Francisco Bay, was built on the "cheapest plot of land available in the city that was suitable for a sports stadium," according to Wikipeida. After the 1970 season, the 49ers moved from Kezar Stadium to The 'Stick. more ›

After dutifully soaking-in the coverage of Samurai Mike Singletary's promotion to head coach, the unfortunate conclusion becomes: it doesn't matter who San Francisco's head coach is.

The single biggest problem hobbling the 49er brand is that the ownership is inept in overseeing the processes of running a football franchise. more ›

Just in time to calm everyone down after the Hawaii earthquake, San Francisco officials released their plans for dealing with the next big earthquake. The plan is actually a "supplement" to the "all hazards" emergency operations plan and what kind of hazards are they expecting us to have to deal with? Is there something else we should know about? And do any of those plans involve giant lizard like creatures coming out of the ocean to stomp buildings? more ›

We'll never forget where we were during the early evening hours of October 17th, 1989. It was one of those warm, Indian Summer days, and the air was completely still. To the superstitious, that's known as "earthquake weather." We had just gotten to Candlestick Park for the third game of the World Series. Giants versus A's--an event we'd hoped to see at least once in our lifetimes. We were ensconced in our seats in the roll-away metal bleachers in the outfield, seats not normally used during season baseball play, and we were watching the teams warm up on the field while our dad was at the concession stand getting hot dogs and beer. It was still a little while before the game was set to begin, but we were enjoying just being there, watching the teams warm up; hearing the Giants faithful talk about how THIS was going to be the Giants' night. more ›

more ›

Growing up, the San Francisco 49ers were freakin' awesome. Now, they suck. Now, they suck bad. They suck so bad, we don't even really care about pro football and we're still embarrassed. We're sure they're all great guys, and we'll still cheer for 'em, unless they're playing the Raiders. more ›

Whether it's San Francisco's exalted sense of self or its well-noted love of tolerance and debate, the San Francisco Voter Information "Pamphlet" clocks in at around 200 pages. Highlights include a sample ballot, information on how to vote (much important these days) and a glossary of terms. The "pamphlet" also includes a guide on how to recycle the "pamphlet" which gives us a great sense of relief when we consider how many trees must have been cut down to prepare these voter guides. more ›

Weekly recap. more ›

The fight between Mayor Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors over renaming Candlestick by Monster Cable, Inc. more ›

Bay Area crime roundup more ›

Monster Cable has closed the deal on Candlestick Park's naming rights, an SFist exclusive. more ›