Nostalgia not the emotion 49ers fans should feel

Fans sit in the stands after the 49ers lost to the Colts in September. It's the team's final season in S.F. Fans sit in the stands after the 49ers lost to the Colts in September. It's the team's final season in S.F. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Nostalgia not the emotion 49ers fans should feel 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

There is a lot of phony nostalgia about the last season for the 49ers at Candlestick Park - you know, talk about the good old days, stuff like that. Last Sunday the team gave every fan a souvenir scarf as a farewell gift.

I don't think 49er fans should be wallowing in nostalgia. They should be angry, mad as hell that the 49ers are moving out of San Francisco.

I don't care what team owners tell you or what insignia they put on their helmets - the San Francisco 49ers are dead. Gone to Santa Clara, 45 miles away. There won't be any more San Francisco 49ers.

Never mind this thanks-for-the-memories stuff. The fans should be on their feet, shaking their fists up at the luxury boxes where the York family, the team's owners, and their millionaire pals gaze down on the ordinary folks who have supported the San Francisco 49ers for 57 years.

They should be yelling at the politicians who let the team get away, who talked big and did little. The people voted for a new San Francisco stadium more than once, but nothing was built. Gavin Newsom was mayor when the 49ers made their decision to move. He tried to talk John York out of it, but they didn't get along, like a team with bad chemistry.

Michael Antonini was on the city planning commission when the second of two San Francisco stadium deals fizzled out. He notes that Chicago kept the Bears in town and even lowly Detroit built a stadium for the Lions. But not San Francisco, beaten out by Santa Clara.

"A bad deal all around," he said. Antonini is a season ticket holder. "I put my money where my mouth is," he said.

The 49ers have always been a San Francisco team, born and bred in the city. They were the team for the real San Franciscans, the 49er Faithful.

"And now they are gonna go to Santa Clara and call themselves the San Francisco 49ers? It's a slap in the face of San Francisco," said Paul McManus, a bartender at the Bus Stop on Union Street.

"A complete disgrace," said Heidi Rossi, whose family owns Gino and Carlo in North Beach.

"It's horrible," said Mike Lyons, another fan. "They are not part of San Francisco anymore. You know, I've been going to the 49ers since I was 5 years old, and I'm 56 now. I have season tickets. Santa Clara? I'm not going. It's too far. I'll watch on TV."

Lyons said he'll miss the excitement of being there. "On a big day you can feel the electricity, you can feel the buzz," he said. When the 49ers score, he continued, "everybody high-fives everybody else. ... At home, you may have three or four people around watching on TV. It's nice, but it's not the same."

It's hard to explain the pull of the 49ers. We had visiting cousins from Nebraska over the weekend, Donald and Carolyn Christen and their son Jordan. They drove an hour and a half from their home in Burwell (population 1,210) to the nearest airport, flew to Denver, then to San Francisco.

They wanted to see the 49ers on their native turf in person for the first and only time. Why? "We wanted to see where Joe Montana played," they said, "and Roger Craig played for Nebraska, too. We've followed the team for years."

They got the grand tour: Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Muir Woods, the sea lions at Pier 39, fresh cracked crab for lunch.

It was all wonderful, they said. But when we drove them out on Gilman Avenue and swung into Bill Walsh Way, and when they saw the parking lot full of tailgaters flying red 49er flags, smoke rising from barbecues, and the rim of Candlestick Park just up the hill, you would think they were looking at a cathedral. They saw the old stadium with different eyes.

The 49ers won, of course, and the Christens had a fine time. "Something we always wanted to do," they said. They are not interested in a new stadium in Santa Clara. The history is here.

I asked a big-time executive if he was angry that the 49ers are moving.

"No," he said. "It's business."

But it's a business built on loyalty. These days, that doesn't count for much.