Glenn Dickey

If the proposed 49ers stadium had been built on schedule, the Super Bowl would have been played in it this year, which would have done wonders for San Francisco's economy, but the stadium is no closer to being built than when it was first proposed.

"The good news is that the commissioner (Paul Tagliabue) has promised us that San Francisco will get the Super Bowl when we build a stadium," said 49ers President Peter Harris, who has visited new NFL stadiums with owner John York.

"We desperately need a new stadium, but we haven't made the progress on it that we'd hoped for by this time. It isn't because the ownership isn't willing to pay for it. John and Denise (DeBartolo York) are fully committed to this project."

The 49ers still are looking at putting a new stadium on Candlestick Point, but Hunters Point also is a possibility. "It's flat land and twice the area of Candlestick Point," Harris said.

Harris firmly denied the rumors that he's leaving the 49ers. "I think those got started because I got a couple of very attractive offers," he said, "but I turned them down. I'm not going anywhere."

BAD NEWS BEARS: "Teams that start thinking about their place in the NCAA Tournament are the teams that get beat," said Cal coach Ben Braun, after his Bears narrowly escaped losing to Washington and Washington State last week.

"We didn't have the same intensity in practice last week that we'd had before the Oregon trip (on which the Bears beat both Oregon State and Oregon). We had a false sense of security, knowing we were playing at home against teams on the bottom of the standings. It was nice that we were able to make the plays to win in the last two minutes. It would have been nicer if we'd made them in the first 38 minutes."

So, when the Bears practiced Monday, Braun didn't even talk about this week's opponents, UCLA and USC in Los Angeles. Instead, he worked to correct the breakdowns of the previous week. "How we do the rest of the way depends on us, not on who our opponents are," he said.

SAME OLD WARRIORS: Of course, Erick Dampier complains about lack of playing time. After all, he's, what, the 25th-best center in the NBA? You have to feel for coach Eric Musselman, who's done an outstanding job with a mismatched team.

Antawn Jamison is the top scorer, but he sometimes gives up more points on defense than he scores. Gilbert Arenas might be the Warriors' best player, but he'll probably leave after this season and become the next Allen Iverson with another team. Meanwhile, general manager Garry St. Jean can't make a deal for Danny Fortson, even though it's been obvious since training camp that Fortson didn't figure in Musselman's plans. There might be light at the end of the tunnel, but it's a dim one.

CO-SPONSORS: The St. Francis Memorial Hospital's Centers for Sports Medicine will be co-sponsors with United Airlines of the 24th annual Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame dinner on March 20. This year's enshrinees are John Elway, Rosie Casals, Tom Meschery and Bill Shoemaker.

FORMAT CHANGE?: There was no better example of why golf has surpassed tennis in spectator interest than last week's Buick Invitational near San Diego and the Siebel Open in San Jose.

Tiger Woods started slowly in his first round back from surgery but, because it was medal play, he stayed in the tournament and eventually won it. If he'd been playing tennis, he might have been eliminated early, because tennis tournaments are match play. Andre Agassi was one point away from elimination on Friday night. No. 2 seed Paradorn Srichaphan was beaten in an early round. So, the final was an easily forgettable match between Agassi and Davide Sanguinetti.

"In 1965, I played in a tournament run by Jimmy Van Alen, who invented the tiebreaker," Siebel promoter Barry MacKay said, "which used total points to determine the winner. We played one 60-point set each day. I lost to Pancho Gonzalez 31-29 the first day, but I stayed in the tournament. We all did, to the last day."

Tennis decision-makers, however, resist change. "I've campaigned for this for years," Mac-

Kay said, "but nobody wants to listen."

STANFORD TRADITION: In the first Rose Bowl, in 1902, Stanford quit when the score was 49-0 for Michigan in the fourth quarter, so the rugby team was only following the school tradition when its coach forfeited the 2001 game against Cal and refused to schedule the Bears last season. The teams are scheduled to play again Saturday. Wonder how long the game will go before Stanford quits?

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