Not Easily Replicable

The 49ers' Stadium will open in 2014

When people think of sports towns, the San Francisco Bay Area is not the first metropolis that comes to mind. However, the simultaneous success of its franchises in the four major professional sports is a rare occurrence that may change that impression. The Warriors and Sharks have rightly captured all the recent headlines because of their basketball and hockey playoff runs, and the Giants and Athletics are fielding competitive teams in a still-young baseball season.

Sketch of the Warriors' new arena

Earlier today the 49ers briefly knocked the other teams off the local front page when the Bay Area was awarded Super Bowl L (that's number 50 for the Roman innumerate), which will kick off in February, 2016. The bid would not have been successful if the new Santa Clara Stadium had not been on track for completion in 2014. And the $1.2 billion project would probably not have even started without the 49ers' seemingly miraculous turnaround in 2011 and 2012.

AT&T Park is comparatively austere

Not to be left out of the party, the Warriors announced last year that they will be moving back to San Francisco and constructing a waterfront arena that will cost $875 to $975 million. While such an expense at one time seemed mind-bogglingly risky, investors were comforted by the decade-long success of the $358 million Giants' AT&T Park and the successful trajectory of the Santa Clara 49ers stadium construction.

It was a moribund sports backwater a few years ago, but the Bay Area will shortly be home to one of the top two or three stadia in each of the professional sports. Like Silicon Valley, the reasons are explainable---a virtuous circle of wealth, entrepreneurial risk-taking, technology, talent, and, of course, capable organizations---but they are not easily replicable. © 2013 Stephen Yuen