49ers heading to Phoenix area for lonely stretch of hotel living
The 49ers will decamp to the desert for much of December.
On Tuesday, a day after the team announced it would be playing its next two “home” games at the Arizona Cardinals’ stadium, head coach Kyle Shanahan revealed the team also would practice and stay near State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
The 49ers will practice on fields adjacent to the stadium, which is where Arizona holds its training camp. They will stay at the Renaissance Hotel, which is a halfmile from the stadium.
The 49ers will fly to Arizona on Wednesday afternoon and hold their first practice Thursday in advance of their game Monday night against Buffalo at
their temporary home.
The 49ers will remain in the state until at least Dec. 19, the day they will travel to Texas to play the Cowboys on Dec. 20. Santa Clara County’s threeweek ban on contact sports and a 14day quarantine for those traveling into the area from 150 miles away ends Dec. 21, but the directives could be extended based on the spread of the coronavirus.
It’s an unprecedented situation for an NFL team, but Shanahan noted it won’t be completely foreign. Last year, the 49ers practiced in Youngstown, Ohio, in September and Sarasota, Fla., in December for a work week between backtoback road games that ended in Cincinnati and New Orleans, respectively. This season, the team stayed in West Virgina between its backtoback September games against the Jets and Giants.
Shanahan acknowledged this pandemic inspired trip will come with unknowns such as COVID19 protocols regarding family members who want to visit or stay in Glendale.
“I’m just telling the guys and our team: ‘ Just look at it one week at a time,’ ” Shanahan said. “We’ve traveled as a team for a week before. … Hopefully, we can get down there for a week and kind of figure it out. What we can do. What we can’t do. What the situation is. And then we’ll spend the next two weeks trying to adjust and make it as good as we can.”
The 49ers explored practice locales outside Santa Clara County in and around the Bay Area. However, they decided on Glendale partly because they had little time to decide after the county’s directives were announced Saturday afternoon.
In the spring, when Santa Clara County was under a stayathome order, the 49ers and NFL discussed contingency plans that included the team using the Cardinals’ facility.
Shanahan acknowledged there remain unknowns, some of which might not be resolved soon. It’s conceivable, for example, that the 49ers won’t return to Santa Clara until 2021 if the county’s directives are extended. They are scheduled to play their final regularseason home game against Seattle on Jan. 3 at Levi’s Stadium.
Given the uncertainty, Shanahan gave the 49ers one of the few guarantees he could provide: They will be with their families on Christmas, which will be the day before they play the Cardinals in Glendale.
Shanahan noted he didn’t know if they would be the Bay Area on Christmas morning, or if their families will be in Arizona.
“I don’t know what that deal is, but I know our organization — they’ll do whatever they can to figure out whether we’re here with our families that week or whether we have to get all of them to us,” Shanahan said. “And go through whatever we have to do to do that.
“I know that will be worth it, and I know ( CEO) Jed ( York) will help us out with that. That helps us a little bit. But after that, I’m not trying to make any plans because as you’ve got to do with everything, you’ve got to wait to see the ( protocols) and then we’ll figure it out.”
Of course, Shanahan’s primary focus isn’t the upcoming holiday, but the 49ers’ first “home” game in Arizona on Monday against the Bills.
The 49ers ( 56) remain in playoff contention with five regularseason games left. How they handle their opponents, along with their unique circumstances, will determine their postseason fate.
“We need each other through this and it’s going to be about five more weeks,” Shanahan said. “And, hopefully, if we do it right, we can make it longer.”