would become a soccer fan?:(

Depends on where they moved and under what circumstances.

There are a lot of ways for the team to get a new stadium in the Bay area.

I’d focus 90% of my attention on college football if the 49ers were to leave (right now it’s about 60% CFB, 40% SF 49ers). I’d no longer have a favorite NFL team and would just follow players in the NFL who went to Arizona State (my alma mater).

If the Niners move to Santa Clara AND keep the SF logo(and shove it up newsome’s a*s), I will celebrate like there is no tomorrow, as the city of SF and their tree-hugging, illegal alien-loving freaks don’t deserve such a proud franchise anyway. If the Niners move out of the Bay area, like the TRaiders did, I would pack up all of my Niner posters, plaques, newsprint archives, tickett stubs, shirts, hats and other memorabilia and throw them, along with my team loyalty, into the attic and forget about them. Some day my kids can sell them at a yard sale. We will talk about them in the past tense, and face it, we are almost to that point now. The NFL and the city of SF have done all they can to crush the Niners, and its working.

and the niners name i don’t think i would change teams. I live in South Dakota so them leaving the Bay area would not affect me as far as attending games and such. But it would def take some time to get over if they ever did move.

is a good idea, they could build an in-stadium casino and make the tickets dirt cheap.

they could even make a slot machine-type thing where you pay a little more than the average cost of a ticket and it randomly decides where you’ll be sitting. that would be hilarious.

but i think LA is a much more practical idea. there’s millions of people there and one of the suburbs already approved a stadium for the first team to move there.

If the Niners moved down to the despised area of California we call SoCal, I don’t know what I’d do.
Los Angeles 49ers? Would you even keep them as the 49ers? The gold rush is more readily identified with San Francisco than LA, even though it happened all over the state… I guess if they moved anywhere else they’d have even less chance of keeping the “49ers.”

Lake Tahoe 49ers, anyone? Hit the slopes, make a bet on the Niners to crush the opponent, and then head over to the stadium to watch a game!

So what…..at the end of the day it’s a business. I’ve been a 9ers fan ALL MY LIFE but I guess because I don’t live in SanFran it doesn’t affect me as much…..I guess I’m biased! Just like they said in the beginning, the Giants play in jersey, the Redskins play in Maryland, hell the Colts left Baltimore and hey went and got a new team…..but I still know people in baltimore that root for the colts over the ravens. It’s a business FIRST.

If you really love your team, you’ll love them no matter where they are…..now if you change the 49ers thats when we have a problem. When the Oilers left houston and became the titans I got problems but the Rams left LA and now in St Louis but they’re still the rams……?!?!?!?!?!?!? To each his own

thank God for DirecTV. It costs some real money but at least a person won’t miss the games on tv.

would I liken it to being dumped by the woman I loved for three years?

No, I would liken it to being dumped on by the woman I loved for three years.

swells up from the dark hidden place inside me… not unlike when I first heard that they wanted to move to Santa Clara… time and perspective have changed my mind about that, but if they left the bay area I don’t think time would ever heal that wound and I would become a Raider fan. Ugg that made me feel dirty but I would do that to myself.

The move would anger the gods and they would never let that happen. So no anger and no worries.

Are you serious, what if they moved 4 hours away? I live in San Diego, about 35 mins from the Q. I also am a Season ticket holder for the only football team I will ever love the San Francisco 49ers. So when I go to see a game its 8 hrs unless southwest is having some airfare deals. I vividly remember the Raiders, Rams, Oilers, Cleaveland, etc. changes around the league. I also remember each team, excluding the Browns, having success after moving. I of course don’t like the thought of the niners being anything but San Francisco. Think about this though, when we are asked what team our we fans of what is our reply? Niners or the 49ers not San Francisco. It is one of the most beautiful citys in the world. I love visiting. But I’ve been all over the country to watch my team play. I’ve even went that shit hole Arizona to go get berated by a bunch of desert rats who were lucky enough to benifit from another move in the NFL the St. Louis Cardinals… Bastards!!!!

I would shit myself. It would be the greatest day of my life.

The Portland 49ers, sounds like beauty.

that San Francisco would be more like Cleveland and less like Baltimore and would take whatever means were necessary to keep the team name, logo and uniforms where they belong……………… IN SAN FRANCISCO!

  I’m not very thrilled about the move to Santa Clara either, I think that stinks. Kezar/Candlestick is where the winning traditions of the 49’ers were born and played out. Anywhere else just doesn’t feel right.

Thing is, I moved from back east so I had to become a Niner fan. I started out, and this will date me, as a New York Titan fan. My dad would take me to games at the old Polo Grounds. I remember watching a game in a heavy snowfall and then riding in the subway back to the Port Authority.

I stayed with them after they moved to Shea Stadium and changed to the Jets, saw Joe Namath his rookie year, but my dad stopped taking me because they were pushing to sell season tickets and we couldn’t afford that. I went nuts when the Jets won that Super Bowl.

After the army and college I came out west. I’d already started routed for the Niners as a secondary team (you know, if their game was on TV and they weren’t playing against someone you liked). And once I got here I was a fan. That was around the time of the first Gold Rush, when the Gold Rush their defensive line.

If they moved away I’d adapt. If they were still on TV every week I’d watch and cheer. Maybe if Al Davis died and better management took over I’d become more of a Raiders fan than I am (I know that’s a sacrilege, but hey…). Right now I wish the Silver and Black well but way too many of their fans are psycho buttheads, so having to be associated with that crowd might be tough.

Then again, I’m getting old, so maybe if the Niners move away I’ll just die.

Screw a possible move. Sign Greg Ellis NOW! Ahmed Brooks is already giving Sing a hard time. Ellis is good for 8 to 10 sacks this year!

Does anybody here live in Santa Clara?

This is an interesting question for me. I grew up in Santa Clara. I graduated from Wilcox in ‘91 and lived in SC untill I was 21. But then I moved. I lived in several citys (NY, Portland, Huntsville Alabama) untill finally setteling down in Utah, where I’ve lived for over the last 10 years. Through all of it I’ve remained loyal to the 49ers, Giants, and Sharks (sorry Warriors, I’m now a Jazz fan). Even though I live over a 1000 miles away, it would hurt if the 49ers moved. Why? Because it’s not the same team I grew up cheering for. This question made me think of what would be acceptable. Here’s the list in desending order:

1) The 49ers stayed in the Bay area
2) They moved to a city in Northern CA ie. Fresno, Sacramento
3) They moved to a city in the West ie. Portland, NV, SLC (Actually, Utah has more 49er fans then any other team. Mostly because Steve Young graduated from BYU and is a mormon and Utah is majority Mormons. And, to a lesser degree, because Alex Smith graduated from the U of U.).
4) They moved outside of the West.
5) They moved to LA. Honestly, Southern CA is the only place they could move that would make me stop being a fan. Seeing the LA 49ers would hurt more than all their playoff loses combined.

In other words, although it would hurt to see them leave the Bay Area, I would still be a fan unless they moved to Southern CA.

I live in London (not a huge surprise, given the screen name) and there’s been talk of a franchise moving here since the major success of the games at Wembley in 2007 and 2008. Quite apart from the issue of fans across the UK already having their own NFL team based on the sport’s huge popularity here since the 1980s, I think it would be a terrible shame to uproot any team and take them that far away from their fans and history. It would have to be an expansion team, otherwise you’d be destroying the fabric of an existing franchise.

In European sports, it’s very rare for a team to move, and change its name. Teams build new stadiums, but usually only a few miles from their old one, and they don’t change their name. It happened a few years ago here when a football/soccer team moved a hundred or so miles away and changed its name, and there was a national outcry.

You might think that, thousands of miles away, it wouldn’t matter to me whether the 49ers played in San Francisco or Santa Clara, but I am desperately hoping they will still be in San Fran when I get out there to watch a game as soon as I can afford it – I’m hoping to do it for my 40th birthday, and since I’m 32 now, I guess I have half a chance of them still playing at Candlestick Park by that time. If it’s to be Santa Clara, at least they will still be called San Francisco. The history of the name, with its links to the Goldrush, the proud history of the Super Bowl wins, the sheer class of the uniforms and logo – those all feel like things not to be given up lightly – if I’d be devastated to see the team leave San Francisco, all the way over here and not ever having been lucky enough to see a game live and in the flesh, I can only imagine how upsetting it would be for some of you guys who actually live in that great city and have been to watch the team through thick and thin.

would make no sense in any town but SF. Frankly, I don’t care if they move or where (as long as it ain’t texas). I want them to stay in SF, just because 49er is so unique. Damn hippie tree hugging mexican loving rainbow flag waving folks in SF (tongue in cheek, making fun of dude earlier. Had to clarify, cause my name has arkie in it) Build in SF for crying out loud.

Did the origional Browns fans become Ravens fans? Did the Origional Colts fans remain Colts fans when they moved to Indianapolis? To relocate a team from its region is one thing. But to revamp the entire team( Uniforms,Name,Personnel) that would be an entirely different matter. I became a football fan thanks to the 49ers. That is my team. I get mad when we loose, or make stupid decisions in the front office ala( not doing right by Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens, Julian Peterson, Andre Carter) I am a New Yorker, however I love the San Fransisco 49ers. If they Move out of the city it would effect the fans who make the team who they are. San Fran has great fans. Fans boost the morale of the team. So, my concern is about loosing the fanbase. Are the season ticket holders, and other fans going to be able to commute to Santa Clara? I guess that is the risk the owners are willing to take. If they make over the team for example( South Dakota Cyotes) I will root for my hometolwn teams N.Y. Giants, and Jets exlusively.