By Jeff Beals
Candlestick Park opened to great fanfare in 1960. It was a gleaming new stadium that would serve as home field for both the San Francisco Giants baseball team and the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League.
Legendary baseball and football players competed in the stadium for many decades until it finally closed following the 2013 football season. Nowadays the Giants play in downtown San Francisco in the picturesque AT&T Park. The 49ers moved to the brand-new Levi’s Stadium in suburban Santa Clara.
I have always considered empty stadiums to be kind of depressing. During games or special events, they are loud and full of the buzz generated by thousands of spectators. When no event is going on, those cavernous stadiums are eerily quiet. Even more depressing is a closed stadium, an out-of-business stadium like Candlestick.
As time goes by things inevitably change. As you read this article, wrecking balls are slowly tearing Candlestick apart piece by piece. By May, there should be nothing left of the old stadium where Joe Montana led the 49ers to multiple championships. In a couple months, the site of the 1989 World Series (and simultaneously the national television coverage of the Loma Prieta Earthquake) will be bare ground ready for redevelopment.
So what’s going to happen to the field where Willie Mays once played? What will happen after Candlestick is completely razed?
They’re going to build a shopping center.
Well, not just a shopping center. It will be a mixed-use development with a “luxury-outlet” mall, hotel rooms and thousands of homes. It will be quite nice; I’ve seen the architects’ renderings. It will be a rebirth for a piece of land that had been vacated.
As the saying goes, change is the only constant in life.
The land under Candlestick Park is too valuable to allow a rotting stadium to languish on it for years and years. New opportunities are waiting. Everyone needs to adapt and keep up with the changing times.
The owners of valuable land must make sure their investment is being maximized even if it means removing something that is nostalgic to thousands of people. The public no longer wants an aging stadium devoid of the desirable amenities new stadiums offer.
We all have to keep up – both with the times and with the changing preferences of our customers/clients.
That means we have to be prepared for change. Unlike some people, I don’t believe you necessarily have to “embrace” change, but you do have to manage it and learn to thrive while it is happening.
Change for the sake of change tends to be a mistake, but change that leads to a healthy renewal is necessary for long-term success.
Are you doing whatever it takes to stay fresh and relevant?
Jeff Beals is a professional speaker and award-winning author, who helps professionals enjoy greater success through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. He delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. To discuss booking a presentation, go to JeffBeals.com or email at info@jeffbeals.com or call us at (402) 637-9300.
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