Blacked Out: Power outage delays Steelers, 49ers

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco 49ers-Pittsburgh Steelers game has started after a 20-minute delay because of a power outage at Candlestick Park.

The power throughout the stadium went off about 25 minutes before the scheduled kickoff of 5:40 local time Monday. The public address system stopped working and fans were left in the dark until an emergency light came on in the far corner of the stadium.

A 49ers team spokesman said transformers appeared to fail outside the stadium. City engineers were working to switch the power over to the backup generators.

Joe Molica, a spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said the power company was still investigating the cause of the outage.

"So far I don't know what the cause is yet," Molica said. "We do know that Candlestick was the only customer affected by this outage."

Molica said PG&E and park authorities had made all the routine checks earlier in the day and that all systems appeared to be in order.

He said Candlestick was back up on full power and multiple crews at the park were investigating.

The power first started to come back on in the press box and the scoreboard ring around the stadium about 15 minutes later, drawing cheers from Steelers and 49ers fans. The stadium lights slowly turned on about 10 minutes later.