49ers Nix New Stadium Plans

The San Francisco 49ers have all but abandoned plans for a costly new football stadium and instead will renovate 3Com park, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.

Plans originally called for a new, $325 million stadium to be built next to the old Candlestick Park with the help of $100 million in bonds narrowly approved by voters, but some cost estimates have soared over $525 million.

Team officials and Mayor Willie Brown met last September after similarly grim reports in the media, and announced that a new stadium would be built after all, without extra public money and in time for the lucrative 2003 Super Bowl.

President Larry Thrailkill, who resigned Saturday, said then that he and Brown and their staffs would review the numbers together to curb costs and keep the stadium within their budget.

But the Chronicle reported Monday that team officials simply couldn't figure out a way to build a new stadium for $325 million, and instead are considering tearing apart the old park and rebuilding it with new stands and luxury suites.

"That's the only scenario they're looking at now," the Chronicle quoted a source close to owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. as saying.

Brown, who has insisted that the new stadium will be built by the 2002 football season as scheduled, said he hadn't been told of any change in plans.

"I've never heard of any of this," Brown told the Chronicle on Sunday. "I assume that if Eddie DeBartolo and the 49ers have differing views, they'd at least consult with me. But no one from the city has been privy to any redesign of the stadium."

Uncertainty in the team's front office hasn't helped planning. DeBartolo has been struggling to regain control of the team from his sister since he pleaded guilty to a felony charge in October in connection with a Louisiana gambling fraud investigation.

On Saturday, Thrailkill quit as president, saying he had comleted his caretaker duties after being hired to oversee the team following the departure of Carmen Policy.

Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, who led the 49ers to three Super Bowls victories during the 1980s, is expected to rejoin the team as early as this week in some front-office job, a team source told The Associated Press.

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