Voters to Decide on Deal for New Giants Stadium

The deal is done on the San Francisco Giants’ proposed new 45,000-seat waterfront home, and now it will be up to the voters in November to decide whether to welcome the stadium.

Mayor Art Agnos, Giants owner Bob Lurie and stadium builder Spectacor Management Group called a news conference for this afternoon to announce an agreement hammered out after two days and nights of negotiations.

Agnos and negotiators for Spectacor, weary but smiling, left City Hall just before 1 a.m. today after resolving most of the details of the agreement. Lawyers for both sides worked out the final language this morning, and all sides gave their approval for a $115-million baseball park and a nearly $80-million indoor sports and entertainment arena several blocks away.

Lease Expires in 1994

Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Stone, head of a task force that had tried to woo the Giants to Santa Clara, also was invited to the news conference.

If San Francisco voters turn down the plan for a downtown stadium, as they did in 1987, Santa Clara probably would be the next place Lurie would turn as an alternative to cold and windy Candlestick Park. The Giants’ lease at Candlestick expires after the 1994 season.

Meanwhile, critics of the San Francisco plan have already begun attacking it.

Even a few Giants questioned the wisdom of building a stadium where the batter would face southeast instead of east-northeast, as suggested by Major League baseball, and where the fielders would have the sun in their eyes.

Outfielder Pat Sheridan wondered whether the unorthodox plan would result in a park similar to Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium, which was in use until a month ago.

“I think in that field, every field was a sun field,” said Sheridan, who played there while in the American League. “The sun seemed to move down the third-base line and get in everybody’s eyes.”

Outfield and hitting Coach Dusty Baker said similar problems affect Yankee Stadium.

“You just had to learn to stay low, play the ball off to your side, use the sunglasses and don’t panic,” Baker said. “I wouldn’t advise anybody to build a stadium like that.”

Opponents say the proposed stadium say won’t be any warmer or less fogged-in than Candlestick.

One group of fans announced that it is filing a petition for a ballot initiative to keep the Giants in Candlestick Park. Joel Ventresca, spokesman for the group, is advocating renovations to the 63,000-seat stadium that would make it “more suitable for baseball.”