Is the Bay Area a lure for coaches?

A few days ago, former NFL coaches Steve Mariucci and Brian Billick, now talking heads for the NFL Network, were asked on-air to choose among four of the existing head-coaching vacancies in the league: the Cleveland Browns, New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles jobs, as well as the 49ers, who are looking to replace the recently fired Jim Tomsula.

Mariucci was head coach for the 49ers from 1997-2002; he coached at Cal from 1987-1991, and again as head coach in 1996. He knows the Bay Area intimately, and he told us what we wanted to hear.

“Maybe I’m biased, but this is the best place to live in the world. And I said it. Yeah. It is,” Mariucci crowed. “It’s a great place to live and raise your family. But, it’s a real tough division, and they’ve got a lot of work to do to catch up with Seattle and Arizona. So right now if I have to pick one, it’s gonna be the New York Giants.”

And this betrayal by the guy we lovingly call Mooch wasn’t the worst of it. Billick picked the Eagles, noting, “And I’ll take the Chesapeake over the West Coast anytime.”

When Northern California sports fans had regained consciousness and concluded that Billick truly had mouthed those bizarre and blasphemous words, we were left in a state of offended confusion. We have access to Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe and rugged coastline. We have four true seasons, none of which includes blizzards or 90 percent humidity. We have world-class museums and restaurants and wineries and breweries. We’re diverse, we’re cosmopolitan. We will not vote for Donald Trump.

“The Bay Area’s one of the smartest areas,” said Ann King, who co-founded the recruiting firm CVPartners and now specializes in the recruitment of accounting and finance executives within the Addison Group. “It’s a tech hub for the world. It’s a great place to live, we have great climate. Talent comes here.”

Not to Nashville or Tampa or Philly - not when similar office space is available in the Bay Area. Unless, that is, the talent is coaching football.

Mariucci and Billick weren’t the only analysts to take a critical look at the 2016 coaching vacancies, which also currently include Tampa Bay and Tennessee. (Miami filled its opening Saturday; Detroit may have one soon.) Several news outlets ranked them based upon their desirability, and the ratings were not kind to the Bay Area.

The Washington Post’s Mike Renner, who also writes for Pro Football Focus, and Fanrag Sports’ Bill Williamson, who until recently worked at ESPN, both put the 49ers job sixth among the original seven entries. SI.com’s Doug Farrar gauged the 49ers job fourth of five. (He did not include the Buccaneers, who fired Lovie Smith after his story, or the Titans, who did not retain interim coach Mike Mularkey.) CBS Sports ranked the 49ers opening dead last. And SBNation.com, looking at 10 “potential” coaching vacancies before the season ended, slotted San Francisco ninth. In each case where the 49ers were second-to-last, only the Browns job - zero Super Bowls, quarterback battling alcoholism, Lake Erie - was ranked lower.

What in the name of Bill Walsh is going on here?

Matt Millen has some perspective. His 12 seasons as an NFL linebacker included two in Oakland (1980-81) and two in San Francisco (1989-1990). He also played for seven years in Los Angeles.

Millen later spent 7½ years as general manager of the Detroit Lions. He went through three coaching searches there. And while Detroit is to San Francisco what an Oldsmobile Cutlass is to a Tesla Model S, at least in popular perception, Millen never felt the city was a hindrance in attracting coaches.

“No. Anybody who I called responded, and all positively,” he said. “Look, they all want the job. Now, some guys will be a little more pragmatic and they will go down the list of some things.”

Spoiler alert: That checklist might not include fresh dungeness crab or neighbors who work for Google.

“The location is way at the bottom of the list,” Millen said. “Factors that are more important in front of that are how stable is the organization, the division you’re in, what kind of players are on your roster, can you work with the people in the organization? There’s a million things that come up.”

Garry St. Jean agrees with Millen, for the most part. St. Jean is a basketball guy, not a football guy. But the basic dynamic of a job interview is the same, and he has seen it from both sides. St. Jean was head coach of the Sacramento Kings from 1992-97, and general manager of the Warriors in 1999-2000.

He now provides in-studio analysis of Warriors games for CSN Bay Area, and still makes his home here.

“I’m a little bit biased, but I can’t think of a better place in the NFL to move,” St. Jean said.

And yet he acknowledges that geography is just one of many factors. Sure, it’s a big deal if a coach is already here (like Stanford’s David Shaw, considered prime NFL material) or if he’s from here (like the Raiders’ Jack Del Rio, who grew up in Hayward). Otherwise, it’s probably somewhere down a list that includes organizational philosophy, Xs and Os, and payroll budget, which can determine your ability to bring in capable assistant coaches.

“You’re looking from top to bottom,” St. Jean said. “You’re looking at ownership. You’re looking at the general manager, you’re looking at stability of the organization. You’re looking at the talent on the team. Everything. The facilities. And then you sit down and talk with your wife about where we’re potentially moving to.”

Oh, that. Every marriage is different, just as every coaching candidate is different. But it’s safe to say a coach’s wife gets a vote in the relocation plan.

“Oh, God, yeah,” St. Jean said. “Because let me tell you something. When you’re coaching the pros - when I grew up, they always said your wife was a step behind you, you know? Well, that’s a bunch of baloney nowadays. They’re right alongside you.”

And if your spouse is dead set against living in Cleveland, you’re probably not going to accept a job there.

Of course, though it pains us to consider it, the Bay Area might not be everyone’s dream home.

“It doesn’t come without its minuses, I guess,” said King, the corporate recruiter. “You know, it’s crowded, it’s trafficky, it’s expensive.”

Yes, the expense. California has the highest sales tax and the highest marginal state income tax in the nation. Florida - home of the Dolphins and Buccaneers - has no state income tax at all.

Then there is the real estate market. Among the cities with current NFL coaching vacancies, according to Realtor.org, median home price for the third quarter of 2015 in Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor was $132,000; in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater the figure is $175,000; in Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro it’s $209,100; in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington it’s $234,700. In New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island it’s $410,500.

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara seems to be using a different currency altogether. Median home price there is $965,000.

“I have seen the sticker-shock piece,” King said. “And the school piece, because a lot of times you have to go private school. So those two things I have seen weigh in on an executive’s decision.”

If the NFL coaching candidate is unproven or considered a retread, none of this is an issue. As everyone is fond of saying, there are only 32 of these jobs. Each is highly coveted. But what if we’re talking about someone like Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, who is scheduled to interview with the 49ers Sunday, or Adam Gase, who was on a long list of short lists before the Dolphins hired him Saturday? In a recruiting war, could the beauty and culture of the Bay Area be the determining factor?

We put the question to St. Jean: If you were an NBA general manager, would you have a better chance of luring a coach to Oakland than to Sacramento, all else being equal?

“Maybe a little. Not a lot,” St. Jean said. “I go back to what we first talked about: the quality of the job. You know, home’s what you make it. I love living here, but I loved living up there, too.”

You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.