Candlestick Park was a dump, but at least it had soul

What if Jed York and his family had been unable to secure financing for a new stadium and been forced to keep the 49ers at Candlestick Park, at least while searching for other options?

With cheaper tickets and better weather, and a hometown feeling, the atmosphere would have been more like a — how do you say? — home-field advantage.

The `Stick would have had to be patched up a bit. Maybe replace the trough urinals and invest in some better gravel for the mudpit parking lots across the street. Maybe some infrastructure road work to improve the in-and-out.

Imagine the bumper stickers: Candlestick: Embrace the funk.

The league bosses, who lust for new stadiums, would have objected, leaned on the Yorks to build a new one ASAP. But how would the team have done?

With no Tequila bunkers, fans would have been forced to actually sit in the stands and root for their 49ers.

And the 49ers' brass wouldn't have had to spend so much time, energy and money trying to control a city government, like they're doing with Santa Clara.

Maybe the 49ers would have bought the Oakland Coliseum property and built a new stadium there.

So when the games were on national TV and the network got blimp shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, it wouldn't be as irrelevant as the Great Wall of China.

Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots ...

• The Trey Lance Mystery is about to be chiseled into the Mount Rushmore of Bay Area sports personnel crises, along with these: Don Nelson vs. Chris Webber. The “resolution” of that crisis sent the Warriors spinning into oblivion. ... Bill Walsh vs. Joe Montana/steve Young. That one turned out sort of OK for the 49ers, although the die-hard Montana folks will never admit that. ... And, Jim Harbaugh choosing Colin Kaepernick over Alex Smith. ... Have I missed any big ones?

• Let’s give some credit to the

Oakland A's ownership and management, for preparing A's fans for the sticker shock of doubled ticket prices when the team moves into a new stadium. Or will prices double again in the new ballpark?

• A’s fans who re-up for their pricier season tickets can feel good knowing that their money will help build a new ballpark. The new ballpark might be in Las Vegas or Nashville, but think of your contribution as being Good for Baseball.

• Your ticket money, A’s fans, will travel along parallel paths — to the pockets of owner John Fisher and president (and partowner) Dave Kaval.

• How soon before the Warriors start getting blowback for having too much fun? Their party vibe plays great with Bay Area fans, and with Warriorslovers around the globe, but eventually there's going to be bad feelings from teams that are getting Globetrottered by the Warriors. The advice from this corner: Party on, fellas, you are the best show in sports. Whiners gonna whine.

• Small sample size, some clips from the Warriors' win over Chicago on Friday, but what if Jonathan Kuminga can really play NBA lockdown defense? That's his ticket to 20 minutes per game, soon.

• What if the 49ers had drafted Aaron Rodgers instead of Alex Smith? It might have led to greater glory, maybe Super Bowls. And now San Francisco fans would be stuck with an all-time local hero that they are ashamed of. Maybe Mike Nolan knew what he was doing, after all.

• This just in: Rodgers has lost another appeal to the NFL. Rodgers, citing personal freedom to make his own health decisions, and extensive research, requested permission to ditch his standard football helmet and wear a tinfoil hat.

• The Levi’s Stadium experience is a reminder to the A's and their fans that a new ballpark is no guarantee of fun times, full houses and lotsa wins. It worked for the Giants, but they are more the exception than the rule: New ballparks do not necessarily bring franchise revival. Oakland and Alameda County government officials better get that A's-can'tmove clause in any new-stadium agreement chiseled in stone.

• What if the Raiders had stayed in Oakland? The town would now be saddled with a zany (in a bad way), dysfunctional, dangerous organization on so many levels. How do you not take the uniform away from a kid who wrecks four rental cars? How did nobody know the real Jon Gruden?

• The logical move for the Raiders right now would be to fire general manager Mike Mayock, but that would focus even more negative attention on the team, still reeling from the forced resignations of president Marc Badain and two of the team's top financial officials. The exit of Badain, 30 years as a trusted Raider, due to “accounting irregularities” (said team owner Mark Davis), kind of got lost in the shuffle, as they say in Vegas.