Next year the San Francisco 49ers will stop playing their home games in the city that bears the team’s name and begin playing in Santa Clara. The 49ers have played in San Francisco since their founding in 1946 and will be moving 39 miles south. The move is not sitting well with franchise legend Joe Montana.
Montana, who was the team’s quarterback for four of the five championships in franchise history, expressed his disappointment with San Francisco politicians for allowing the team to move.
“I understand people’s concern about them leaving San Francisco,” Montana said while speaking at a fan forum, per CSN Bay Area.
“I don’t think there was not enough of an effort by people in power at the time to try to keep them there. To me, they made a terrible effort to try to keep them in San Francisco.”
Candlestick Park, where the 49ers currently play, has long been considered outdated and will be demolished. The team had been working on plans to build a new stadium in the area, but they changed plans and began focusing on Santa Clara in 2006. They’ll be moving into Levi Stadium for next season. Montana mentioned that the move could have been worse. And I’ll remind him that at least it’s not a team with the name of one state playing their home games in another (ahem, New York).
