SAN FRANCISCO49ers say they are moving to Santa Clara

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

The owner of the San Francisco 49ers said Wednesday that plans to build a new football stadium at Candlestick Point are dead and that the team will be leaving San Francisco, according to several sources.

In a series of evening phone calls to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and to several supervisors, team owner John York declared that months of negotiations with the city are over and that he plans to move the team to Santa Clara.

Mayoral spokesman Peter Ragone said the call came in early evening, stunning and perplexing officials who had been meeting weekly with team representatives.

York's decision followed a meeting earlier in the day with representatives of the Lennar Corp., the would-be developers of the housing and retail stores that were to accompany the proposed 80,500-seat stadium. York gave his decision during the meeting and began contacting city officials.

Not every town is going to have a football team.