Giants Reportedly Decide to Try to Win Approval of City Stadium

The San Francisco Giants apparently will try once more to win voter approval for a downtown stadium rather than move to a suburban site in the South Bay.

The Giants, who have the best home record in the major leagues but want to leave chilly, windblown Candlestick Park after their contract expires in 1994, said they may hold a news conference today.

Owner Bob Lurie and other club officials refused to comment on reports that the Giants have decided in favor of a $115-million, 45,000-seat, open-air stadium on the waterfront in the China Basin section of San Francisco instead of a rival proposal in Santa Clara.

But Lurie and Giants vice president Corey Busch met for an hour with South Bay officials Tuesday and told them of the decision to reject the proposal for a stadium on a 120-acre site near the Great America amusement park and the 49ers headquarters.

Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Stone, head of the Santa Clara County Stadium Task Force, said the deciding factor was simply the ability of San Francisco to put together a viable deal.

“Art Agnos (San Francisco’s mayor) said to me, ‘We win the ties,’ ” Stone said. “And I think if San Francisco could put together a proposal that was comparable to ours, that was the proposal Lurie was going to take, because it’s easier.”

Stone and executives from Spectacor Management Group, the Philadelphia-based developer that would build the San Francisco ballpark, and city officials also were invited to the Giants’ news conference.

Lurie’s expected announcement would clear the way for a November ballot measure in San Francisco. Agnos, who supports the downtown plan, has promised to let the voters have the final say.