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SANTA CLARA (CBS 5 / AP) ― The San Francisco 49ers have removed any doubt about a move to Santa Clara.

Team owner John York said during a news conference Thursday that the 49ers intend to replace dingy Candlestick Park with a state-of-the-art stadium --and they plan to do it in Santa Clara, with play starting there by 2012.

After years of planning for a stadium in the city of San Francisco that has been the franchise's home for six decades, York officially changed his club's focus from Candlestick Point to the Silicon Valley suburb that sits 30 miles south of San Francisco.

York said with a new stadium, the team will go from playing from he called the "oldest and worst stadium in NFL" to the best in the league that will "deliver the game day experience our fans deserve."

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While insisting the 49ers will never leave the San Francisco Bay Area or change their name, York cited several factors that made it impossible to continue the team's planning for a stadium and an accompanying commercial complex -- which would help fund the arena's construction -- on a thin strip of land in the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.

"Nothing will persuade us to change the name of the San Francisco 49ers, one of the most storied brands in the world of sports," he said.

The team's current lease at Candlestick runs through the 2008 season and the team holds three five-year options that could extend it through 2023.

But York is determined to open the new stadium for the 2012 season and he claimed an extensive study of the Candlestick Point site proved it wasn't feasible, citing extensive costs for infrastructure, parking accommodations and other changes that would cost more than the stadium itself -- which was estimated between $600 million and $800 million.

"We truly wish that the results were different," said York, who wrested control of the storied franchise from his
brother-in-law, Eddie DeBartolo, in the late 1990s. "We were the last to be convinced. We made this decision as a family, and in the end we were able to come to this conclusion by thinking about the challenges from the fans' perspective."

Just four months after claiming the team was concentrating all of its stadium efforts on that privately financed stadium and entertainment complex on Candlestick Point, York called San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday night and informed him of the decision. CBS 5 first reported the development Wednesday night upon getting confirmation from the mayor's office.

The proposed new San Francisco stadium was going to be part of the city's bid for the 2016 summer Olympics.

Peter Ragone, a spokesman for Newsom, did not know how the 49ers' decision would impact the Olympic bid. San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago are the three cities competing to be the U.S. Olympic Committee's choice to bid on the 2016 games.

Now the 49ers are headed for the open spaces and burgeoning population of Silicon Valley, currently home to only the NHL's San Jose Sharks among major sports franchises.

The Oakland Athletics also seem determined to follow the money to the Bay Area's financial epicenter. They are expected to announce plans soon for a stadium in Fremont -- about 20 miles from both Oakland and San Jose.

For practical purposes, the 49ers' proposed move 30 miles south in the Bay Area will make little difference to the club's fan base.

The team's training complex and offices have been located on Santa Clara's Centennial Boulevard since 1987, across the street from an overflow parking lot for the Great America amusement park amid acres of industrial parks and apartments.

But the 49ers' identity will be forever changed if the club moves away from Candlestick Point and its dilapidated, wind-swept stadium -- the home to several of the most memorable playoff games in NFL history during San Francisco's run to five Super Bowl championships in the past quarter-century.

Before the 49ers moved to Candlestick Park on the waterfront near the southern boundary of the city in 1971, they played their first 25 seasons at Kezar Stadium, a charming, cramped field that still sits in the heart of San Francisco, just a short walk from the Haight-Ashbury district. Coach Mike Nolan saw his first 49ers games there when his father, Dick, ran the club.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)