The Stadium That Survived An Earthquake - Candlestick Park - World Series Earthquake

It's October 17, 1989 at approximately 5:04 pm. The San Francisco Giants are about to face off against their across the bay rival Oakland A’s in Game 3 of the World Series. As fans are filing into the stadium and ABC Sports reporters are showing a highlight reel from the previous game, the ground starts to violently shake. The live television feed goes to static as the crowd starts to yell in a panic. The San Francisco bay area has just been struck by a monster 6.9 magnitude earthquake.

The earthquake was forever immortalized not only for its massive damage, with the total coming close to $12 billion dollars adjusted for inflation, but also its impact on the World Series. Both the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants were cross town rivals, with their stadiums being around a 30 minute drive from each other. It was truly a hometown rivalry game, and both cities were on the edge of their seats. This intense rivalry is said to have saved thousands of lives.

What would have normally been bustling rush hour traffic was noticeably lighter than normal. Many people working in the city had taken off work early to watch the game at home. Those who stayed in the city crowded into bars and restaurants to watch Game 3. With this massive amount of people off the roads and streets, the falling debris and collapsed roads only accounted for 63 deaths, although 3757 people were injured.

Candlestick Park’s incredible engineering design was credited with saving the lives of thousands at the stadium. The engineering firm of Interactive Resources was called on by the City of San Francisco in 1983 to review the structural integrity of the stadium. When engineers from the firm noted that the stadium was in desperate need of repair and needed reinforcements in case of an earthquake, the city spared no expense. Upgrades were made to the stadium immediately, and the stadium was soon up to an acceptable standard of safety. When the ground violently shook on that fateful October day, the upgrades proved their worth as thousands of spectators sheltered in place until the shaking stopped. Interactive Resources was immediately called in to inspect Candlestick Park, and although some repairs were needed, the stadium was back to normal operating standards within 10 days.

What could have been a complete disaster was avoided thanks to the fortunate foresight of the city of San Francisco. There hadn’t been a major quake on the Faultline since the famous 1906 earthquake, so city planners could just have easily ignored the needed upgrades. Luckily for the thousands of fans inside they didn't.

After the earthquake, news reporters at the stadium jumped into action reporting on the damage. The Goodyear Blimp which was in the air floating to cover the World Series was quickly used to assess the damage and coordinate recovery efforts. With the game cancelled, both teams were instructed to return home. With the collapse of the Bay Bridge, Oakland players had to detour through San Jose on the team bus to make it home.

The mayor of San Francisco wanted to postpone the World Series for an entire month to ensure the city had recovered enough to host the game, but the commissioner of the MLB threatened to move the game elsewhere if this was the case. Eventually both sides agreed that Candlestick was safe and sturdy enough to host the game and the World Series continued after a 10 day delay, the longest in history.