DESERT BOUND
Niners to play home games in Arizona because of Santa Clara County directive
SANTA CLARA >> The 49ers are taking their ball and going to a new home in Arizona.
State Farm Stadium in Glendale will host the 49ers’s next two games, because of Santa Clara County’s health directive banning contact sports over at least the next three weeks amid a COVID-19 surge.
The 49ers, on the Arizona Cardinals’ field, will play on Monday night against the Buffalo Bills and then vs. Washington on Sunday, Dec. 13.
The 49ers (5- 6) have yet to announce where they will move their practices and, essentially, their entire operations with the potential of not returning to their Santa Clara facility the rest of the season.
“The biggest thing for me is us all leaving our families. We’re all human like everyone else,” coach Kyle Shanahan said after Sunday’s 23-20 win over the host Los Angeles Rams. “It’s a huge
deal to leave your family for the month of December. It’s a huge deal. This virus is a huge deal.”
Although the 49ers would have liked to practice this week in a nearby county outside Santa Clara County’s bor
ders, Shanahan is expected to announce today they will get an early jump on their Arizona encampment and head there Wednesday.
The most natural fit is to follow how the Cardinals do train
ing camp: Practice on fields outside State Farm Stadium and stay at a neighboring hotel, all of which offers turnkey operations to also stage meetings, distribute food and follow other quarantine-needed measures to abide by Maricopa County’s protocol.
The Cardinals’ practice facility in Tempe is not a viable option simply because the Cardinals are occupying it, but nearby college or other fields and vacancy-friendly resorts are alternatives while abiding by local health protocol. Shanahan did not speak Monday as he normally would the day after a game, deferring to today in hopes of providing more clarity on travel plans. He did add Sunday: “I want a place that’s safe for us.”
Jed York, the 49ers’ CEO, expressed his gratitude to the Cardinals’ organization in a Monday morning tweet: “Thank you Michael Bidwell and the @AZCardinals for all of your help. Very
appreciative of Arizona welcoming us during these unprecedented times.”
York also tweeted that San Diego was not a viable option despite overtures from its mayor’s office.
After their games against Buffalo and Washington, the defending NFC champion 49ers will play at the Dallas Cowboys on Dec. 20 before returning to State Farm Stadium to play the Cardinals on Dec. 26. The 49ers are to host the Seattle Seahawks in a Jan. 3 regular-season finale.
The 49ers will play as many games at State Farm Stadium in December as the Cardinals (6-5). None of their games overlap on the schedule, and their Dec. 26 meeting will be broadcast via Amazon Prime Video, Twitch and, locally, on NBC Sports Bay Area.
A lthough State Farm Stadium hosted 4,200 fans in the Cardinals’ past two games there, the general public is not allowed at the Cardinals’ game Sunday against the Rams because of rising COVID-19 cases in A rizona; family members of Cardinals players and staff can attend, however. It’s doubtful the 49ers will be afforded the same opportunity for Monday’s game to mitigate cross- community exposure.
The 49ers were stunned to learn Saturday of the county ’ s stricter g uidelines, and Shanahan expressed“extremed isappointment ” over that decision, which had the 49ers and their families scrambling for answers before and after Sunday’s win.
“That’s all we could talk about for the last 18 hours, because we got no answers from them,” Shanahan said.
In response Monday, Santa Clara County Executive Dr. Jeff Smith said the county has been in regular contact with the 49ers “for months.”
“It is hard for me to believe that the 49ers were surprised by the new orders given how serious the situation is both locally and across the country,” Smith said. “They received a notice of the new orders as soon as the orders were finalized, at the same time we notified the thousands of businesses impacted in the community.”
Maricopa County’s population is just over twice the size of Santa Clara County’s but it has recorded six times as many cases over the course of the pandemic (205,522 cases there to 34,292 in Santa Clara County).Over the seven days prior to Thanksgiving, Maricopa Count y repor ted more than twice as many new infections, even when accounting for population, at about 50.1/100K per day, compared to 19.1/ 100K in Santa Clara County.
Maricopa County (3,980) has recorded more than eight times more fatalities than Santa Clara County (476) over the course of the pandemic.