Giants, Frustrated in Bid to Find New Home, to Stay at Candlestick Through ’87

Giants owner Bob Lurie, despite suffering another setback in his search for a baseball-only stadium in downtown San Francisco, said Tuesday his National League club will remain at blustery Candlestick Park at least through next season.

Lurie, responding to a report released Tuesday by Bechtel Corp. on the costs of building a new stadium, said he hoped some arrangement could be worked out to save a proposed downtown stadium plan.

“We remain committed to a downtown ballpark and will continue to work on it for the months ahead,” the Giant owner said. “The Giants will play at Candlestick though the 1987 season.”

Lurie has blasted the conditions at Candlestick Park and blamed them for poor attendance and a dismal showing on the field. However, with the Giants battling for the NL West lead, San Francisco’s attendance figures already have topped last season’s total.

On Monday, Mayor Dianne Feinstein shelved plans to put the stadium proposal before the voters in November after reviewing the Bechtel report. The mayor had hoped a state-of-the-art baseball stadium could be built for $36 million. However, the Bechtel report concluded that a stadium would cost $67 million.

“The projected cost has made economics of the proposal more difficult, and we simply need more time to structure a package which works for both the city and the Giants,” the mayor said at a Monday news conference.

The Bechtel report shows just how much more work has to be done. First, the water table fluctuates from 2 to 10 feet below the surface. The soil also is poor for supporting a structure as heavy as a stadium because it is basically unstable bay mud on top of fill consisting of, among other things, parts of buildings destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

“The condition of the soil increases the cost of the stadium by about $17 million,” said Bob Jackson, head of the study. “The stadium would have to be completely above ground.”

The Bechtel report also found that the proposed site had room for only 380 parking spots.

Jackson also said a second site--at 3rd and Mission across from Moscone Center--also would present problems.

“I really don’t think you can build a stadium for $36 million anywhere in San Francisco,” Jackson said. “For the mayor’s price all you would get would be a high school grandstand.”

Corey Busch, the Giants’ executive vice president, said the club never believed a stadium could be built for $36 million.

“We have maintained all along that a stadium could not be built for $36 million,” he said. “But we have to deal with reality. If it’s going to cost $60 million to $66 million, then that is what we are going to go with.”

Busch also brushed aside survey results that showed most San Franciscans would vote against giving any public money for building the new stadium.

“We feel once we have a concrete proposal, we can generate support,” he said. “Until we have such a proposal we are not going to put any weight into survey results.”