Candlestick demolition plans slated for 2014

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After more than half a century overlooking the San Francisco Bay, Candlestick Park is finally getting ready to say its goodbyes.

Owners of the stadium, the current home of the NFC champion 49ers, announced this week Candlestick would be dynamited, in a 30-second implosion, likely within weeks of the end of the coming football season, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The 53-year-old stadium, which was originally built to host the San Francisco Giants, would have otherwise ended up empty next year: The baseball team moved out in 2000 after the construction of Pacific Bell Park (now AT&T Park) and the NFL team is slated to move into a new home at Santa Clara Stadium at the start of the 2014 season.

Lennar Corp., which owns the property, plans to build a shiny new shopping, residential and office complex on the land.

"The best thing for our development and the neighborhood is not to have that hulking building sitting there empty," said Kofi Bonner, president of Lennar Urban.

The city, which had feared it would be stuck with the bill of maintaining and aging and empty stadium, is relieved that plans to demolish 'The Stick' are finally in place.

Says Phil Ginsburg, the head of city Rec and Park: "Everything has a life, and Candlestick has exceeded it."