Candlestick Park

The windswept home of the Giants and 49ers, where history was made.

Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium located in the Hunters Point area of San Francisco, California, United States. It was the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there beginning in 1960 through 1999. It was also the home field of the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League from 1971 through 2013, after which the team moved to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara.

Quick Facts

Nickname: The Stick
Address: 602 Jamestown Avenue
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Groundbreaking: August 12, 1958
Opened: 12 April 1960
Closed: 14 August 2014
Demolished: February 4 –; 24 September 2015
Owner: City and County of San Francisco

Lore & Background

The stadium was situated at Candlestick Point on the western shore of San Francisco Bay. Candlestick Point was named for the 'candlestick birds' (long-billed curlews) that populated the area for many years. Due to Candlestick Park's location next to the bay, strong winds often swirled down into the stadium, creating unusual playing conditions. At the time of its construction in the late 1950s, the stadium site was one of the few pieces of land available in the city that was suitable for a sports stadium, and had room for the 10,000 parking spaces that had been promised to the Giants.

The surface of the field for most of its existence was natural bluegrass, but for nine seasons, from 1970 to 1978, the stadium had artificial turf. A 'sliding pit' configuration, with dirt cut-outs only around the bases, was installed in 1971, primarily to keep the dust down in the breezy conditions. Following the 1978 football season, the playing surface was restored to natural grass. When the New York Giants arrived in San Francisco in 1958, they played their home games at the old Seals Stadium at 16th and Bryant Streets.

As part of the agreement regarding the Giants' relocation to the West Coast, the city of San Francisco promised to build a new stadium for the team. Most of the land at Candlestick Point was purchased from Charles Harney, a local contractor. Harney purchased the land in 1952 for a quarry and industrial development. He made a profit of over $2 million when he sold the land for the stadium.

Harney received a no-bid contract to build the stadium. The entire deal was the subject of a grand jury investigation in 1958. Ground was broken for the stadium and the Giants selected the name of Candlestick Park, after a name-the-park contest on March 3, 1959. Prior to the choice of the name, its construction site had been shown on maps as the generic Bay View Stadium.

It was the first modern baseball stadium, as it was the first to be built entirely of reinforced concrete. Then-Vice President Richard Nixon threw out the ceremonial first pitch on the opening day of Candlestick Park on April 12, 1960, and the Oakland Raiders played the final three games of the 1960 season and their entire 1961 American Football League season at Candlestick Park.

Reader's Guide

The stadium was also used for live musical performances. The Beatles famously gave their last full public concert at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966. The last event held at Candlestick was a concert by Paul McCartney in August 2014. The demolition of the stadium was completed in September 2015. As of 2019, the site is planned to be redeveloped into office space.