The 49ers are a step closer to saying goodbye to San Francisco.

Tuesday night the Santa Clara City Council voted 7-0 to approve plans to develop and pay for a new 68,500-seat stadium for the football team that has played in San Francisco since 1946.

"Tonight we got a virtual shovel in the ground," said Mayor Jamie Matthews.

With the approval, the 49ers - who have been in San Francisco for 65 years and won five Super Bowls - will likely leave Candlestick Park and play home games in Santa Clara for four decades. Construction could start next year and conclude in time for the 2014 season.

Members of the City Council were acting as the Santa Clara Stadium Authority as they considered whether to approve an $850 million loan to build the $1 billion stadium on a 15-acre site that is currently a parking lot next to the Great America amusement park.

$850 million loan

In a financial package announced this month, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and U.S. Bank would back the construction with an $850 million loan, the majority of the total cost. The money would be funneled through the 49ers and the Santa Clara Stadium Authority, an agency created to oversee the stadium.

The construction loan is expected to be repaid over the next 25 years from ticket sales, rent from the team and naming rights. The city is chipping in $114 million, as approved by voters in June 2010, and the National Football League is expected to contribute $150 million.

Councilwoman Jamie McLeod, who in the past has objected to parts of the project, acknowledged that the size of the loan presented a "tremendous risk," but felt the city had taken enough steps to protect itself.

"I think the document, while it is not a perfect document, is very solid," she said.

$30 million a year rent

The team, which would pay $30 million annually to use the stadium, has pledged to cover any construction cost overruns and loan costs if revenue falls short. And city officials say no general fund money will be spent.

Most of the three dozen people who spoke at Tuesday's meeting were in favor of the project, saying it would create jobs and spending in this suburb that has seen cuts to schools, libraries and other services.

Critics uneasy about the size of the loan, however, argued residents have been misled about the financial risks. The cost has ballooned from an estimated $854 million in 2007, which city officials say is because of inflation.

"We really do believe the city is undertaking far too much debt for far too little a reward," Bill Bailey, the treasurer of Santa Clara Plays Fair, a grassroots group that opposes the stadium, said at the meeting, which was attended by about 100 people.

Last month, the council unanimously approved $10 million in cleanup work to prepare the site for construction. That work is to begin in January.

Deal falls through

In the fall, a real estate investment group backed by the 49ers said it was planning to buy the park in what company officials said was an effort to integrate the two. Since then, however, Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., which owns Great America, said that deal had fallen through.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has recently said he hopes to keep the team in the city, but acknowledged that possibility was slim.

Prompted by Planning Commissioner Mike Antonini, a longtime 49ers season ticket holder, an architectural firm has talked to city officials about erecting a 70,000-seat stadium in Hunters Point - but no money to back that plan has materialized.