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sfgate.com: A sea of Cowboy blue and white at Candlestick


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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/19/SPC21L6A70.DTL

As Dallas kicker Dan Bailey's winning 19-yard field goal went through the uprights, a huge roar of approval came from the Candlestick crowd. For a second, it sounded as if he had missed, giving the home team another chance.

But the applause came from a contingent of Dallas fans that almost surpassed the Red Sox partisans who routinely seize control of the Oakland Coliseum, rivaling the presence of A's supporters. The Cowboys fans routinely made noise on 49ers' possessions, chanting "Defense."

"That was amazing. I don't know if I've ever been involved in a game like that," said Dallas tight end Jason Witten. "They helped the players, helped the mind-set."

Quarterback Tony Romo sits to pee made an even stronger statement. "That was possibly the difference," he said. "They were loud."

Safety Donte Whitner, in his first year with the 49ers, didn't expect to see so many blue and white jerseys.

"I was very surprised," he said. "They had their own chants. It was almost like a split house."

He ascribed the large number of Dallas fans to the intensity of the long rivalry between the Cowboys and 49ers, but when these two teams ruled the NFL, 49ers fans would have filled most of the house. As the 49ers have declined, more tickets have become available to opposing fan bases. The Steelers have long drawn a big following here, and a certain number of cheeseheads always find a way to watch the Packers here.

But as Witten said, this game was different. The 'Stick had practically become a Cowboys' comfort zone.

---------- Post added September-19th-2011 at 08:18 AM ----------

Brokeback Mountain was very popular in the Bay Area...

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After last season, I'm sure 49er ticket sales took a nose dive.

Puke fans were just taking advantage of the disappointment...something we've experienced with FEDEX many, many times.

Besides, a great fall day in the bay area makes any organized event a difficult draw.

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I went and watched the longest clip I could find on it, and it didn't look like a sea of 'Girls fans.

What struck me as odd was the announcer saying ol' Stonehands getting a pick (after they lol'd at him for the first one he missed that bounced off his Jason Campbell couch sleeping head) but I looked at the stats on foxsports and he had no INT to his credit.

I looked closer, and it was because the announcer was wrong, it was #26 Brock/Brook something or other. Its at the 1:50 mark. Poor Carlos, he can't catch a ball but he can crack a rib, God bless 'im.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKhcrv97QAk

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I'm writing this from S.F., and having lived here for years, can begrudgingly attest that the 49er fan base is a lot like the Redskins' - a storied franchise with lots of Super Bowl wins, that has fallen on hard times. They're still loud, supportive, devoted, etc., but these recent years have been filled with frustration. Remember how we fretted about Campbell - is it him, or the system and o-line and lack of help? That's the never-ending debate here about Alex Smith. Most 49er fans are fed up with him, but happy that Harbaugh is now coach. I view this season for them as the same season the Skins had last year: new coach, trying to figure out who he has on his roster.

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The Cowboys fanbase owns the majority of the South Western region. It is really pathetic in the state of Arizona where it seems like the majority of the state is Cowboys fans and not Cardinals fans. My previous job I worked with a chick from Arizona, she was all abou Arizona sports teams, ASU, Diamondbacks, Suns, etc etc etc....except of course the NFL, she was a Cowboys fan. It is front-running at it's worse. She had no real explanation for why she just happened to be a Dallas fan instead, but my hunch is it is because the Cowboys were in the midst of the 90's dynasty as she was growing up as she is a few years older than me which would put her at mid-to-late teens during the early 90's.

As far as 49ers fans go. Candlestick Park has never been a hard place to get tickets for ever since the 49ers franchise went downhill. In 2009 when the 'Skins went there I picked up 5 tickets from stubhub for $28 each, the seats were in the upper level but this was approx $40 under the face value.I have been to about 5 different Skins@49ers games, and most times the 'Skins fan contingent has been pretty huge, especially for a team that is based all the way across the country.

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When you are a fan of a team expected to be amongst the worst in the league, coupled with a team coming in that everyone is predicting to blow your team out of the water, sometimes you just don't want to be there. I have never been a season ticket holder, so it is hard for me to have a "meh it's just one game" attitude, but I imagine if I had access to every single home game, year after year, after year, there would definitely be times that I would be willing to part ways with my tickets here and there. Most of the times when you are selling tickets, your friends/family have excuses why they think you should just give them to them rather than buy them off you, so you have to go with whoever is willing to buy them, and more times than not if they are visiting team fans, they aren't going to come out and say it.

Add this to the fact that ticket broker offices own an insane amount of season tickets that are open to anyone who has the money buy them, and the home fans increasingly have less and less control over keeping the stadium filled with home team fans.

The only reason it is a little more surprising in Candlestick is because it is one of the more moderately sized stadiums in the NFL, I believe between 50-60k. Unlike the new-school 80k+ seat stadiums where every game you will get an abundance of empty seats regardless of the game being "sold out"

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