San Francisco will test generator early this week

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on December 24, 2011, 11:16 AM EDT
AP

After an embarrassing moment on Monday Night Football, the city of San Francisco will run tests this week on the generator that operates Candlestick Park.

The city owns the stadium. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the 49ers have asked the city for years to check on the generator, but they were ignored until the blackout on Monday.

Mayor Ed Lee called the incident a “national embarrassment” and the city will apparently do what it can to make sure it doesn’t happen again during the playoffs. 

Permalink 7 Comments Feed for comments Back to top

7 responses to “San Francisco will test generator early this week”

  1. This just in- They found that the generator was afflicted with the same breakdown points as the niners RZ offense and Frankenberger’s coach decisions, both of which elicit laughter in NFL corners. ESPN’s Adam Schefter says the city has asked the niners for years to check on the offense, but they were ignored.

  2. When I was in the USAF as a radio repairman we checked the emergency generators for the control tower monthly. This was in the 70’s and I’d say the things failed about 10-20% of the time.

    I think the NFL should require a test 72 hours before every game

  3. This is a totally exaggerated story. There has never been a generator that runs backup power to the Tower lights at Candlestick Park. Emergency generators are installed for public safety and were upgraded after the 1989 World Series Earthquake. It is totally unrealistic to think you can operate an entire football stadium with no direct power and from an emergency generator. The power went off during the Monday night game because an off site power line failed and an electronic switch which automatically moves the power to a secondary power line exploded. Trying to “blame” someone for this is just stupid “gotcha” journalism. Frankly, my observation is that the personnel did a very good job of rectifying the problem when the emergency presented itself. No one was injured and the game was delayed. Get over it. I say all of this as a current executive in the entertainment industry who has been an NFL Stadium Manager in my career.

  4. If the Forty Niners actually told Adam Schefter that this problem was the fault of the City staff, they are totally two faced. In San Francisco, immediately following the game, a Forty Niner employee went on SF Bay Area post game show to directly commend the staff at the stadium, along with the fire and police department and the regional power company. He had them standing with him on the television show. He named them by name. If they are now telling ESPN how bad the City has handled this, they are totally unethical and two faced. Either that or ESPN is once again trying to make their own network look better than it is. Calling a power outage a “National Embarrassment” is way over the top.

  5. Let’s get this straight. As our hyperbolic and querulous mayor frets over the blackout last Monday at Candlestick, he dares call it a “national embarrassment.” No it’s not. It’s part of our San Franciscan lore, its quirkiness. I love it; that’s why I live here. I was in the stands for the 1989 World Series earthquake, when the lights went down in the city. I was also in the stands Monday night. The crowd both times was cool and rolled with it. Things such as this are supposed to happen in quirky San Francisco. Let me close by saying only the 49ers’ defense is lights out

  6. What a national embarrassment?? We have kids living on the streets in this country. That is an embarrassment. Not the fact that a game was delayed. “National Embarrassment……………..”
    Ed Lee needs to pull his head out before he says something so stupid when there are hungry homeless kids on his streets.

  7. The 49ers should tell the truth… The power failure was thier fault… They know it is true… thaat is what they get for trying to charge Aldon Smith’s battery to max… they could not handel the power…

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!