Sports Radio Service


		Short of a downtown stadium 49ers will leave the City By Tony the Tiger Hayes May 30, 2009

	SAN FRANCISCO--Short of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and his 49ers brain trust on getting another plan on the table of abandoning a new 49ers Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Stadium and drawing up plans to keep the 49ers in the City and making blue prints for the team in downtown San Francisco the 49ers are smooth sailing ahead with their plans to move to where their head quarter offices are in Santa Clara at the Great America amusement park. The Santa Clara Stadium was just approved by the Santa Clara city council on Friday and now plans to get the stadium approved goes in front of the Santa Clara voters in March 2010. The cost of building the new stadium and the purchase of Great America combined would add up to close to what it cost the New York Mets and the Yankees to build their new stadiums just short of $1 Billion at the tune of $937 and the cost of $222 million that was going to be footed by the public has drastically been reduced to $79 million, the seat capacity for the new 49ers stadium is listed at 68,500. The plan is for the 49ers to take over the Great America property and their offices which is close proximity is something that owners John and Denise York and the organization will be pleased with rather than trekking all the way to Candlestick Park for home games during the regular season and keeping all their business in Santa Clara. The 49ers will also be responsible for operating Great America under the plan which has been noted as subject to change. "It's a great deal, this is a great investment that will get repaid, I do believe absolutely this is the best deal the city could have possibly negotiated" said Santa Clara Mayor Patricia Mahan. Mahan said that the tax payers will not see any taxes raised or spent from this new plan and that the public monies will not come from the city general fund. The plan is to draw $41 million of the $79 million from redevelopment funds. Meanwhile Newsom and a San Jose attorney Bryon Fleck are leading separate charges to stop the stadium build in Santa Clara. In a Santa Clara City council meeting back in January 2008 Fleck told the city council that $169 in subsidy money for whatever the cost and whatever the circumstance should not be used on the backs of the tax payers and that if funding is issued for a 49ers stadium out of public monies then property owners should have a shot at property redevelopment out of public money as well and as equal. Since last Friday's city council vote and the decision to use redevelopment money that does not come out of the general fund Fleck has not yet issued a public statement on the council vote regarding his previous objection to a new 49ers stadium in Santa Clara. However inside sources in the Fleck camp under the website moniker notwithourmoney.com have said that Fleck is expected to go forward and campaign hard against the 49ers new stadium because as the source said "these bond measures for new stadiums always have hidden costs and hidden agendas that the tax payer will be tagged for later on and even unknowingly." Fleck said in mid May that Not with our money's group support is growing to 300 and now with the city council vote on Friday it could grow to 1000s now that's it been confirmed that the vote goes to the ballot in March 2010. Fleck also added that the raising cost of taxes, inflation, the poor economy and business moving out of the Silicon Valley plus paying for a billion dollar stadium would economically bankrupt Santa Clara and this vote approval is irresponsible in these economic times. "It's our opinion that it does not depend on the funding source. This is a big enough project that it must go to the voters." said Fleck. Fleck also wrote, "if the Santa Clara city council wants each and every member of our households to contribute $1000 to a billionaire's monument we shall see them at the ballot" the fight is just starting from the Fleck camp. The Newsom San Francisco fight: After losing a crucial ballot measure last November proposition 8 the legalization of same sex marriages in California and now running for state governor, if San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom loses the San Francisco 49ers it could almost certainly wash away any chances of Newsom winning election for governor. He would be viewed by Californians up and down the state as someone as Mayor who lost some big issues in his bid for governor. More over to the point of keeping the 49ers in San Francisco the only thing now that will keep them in the City is for the 49er stadium measure to go down at the ballot box in March and the 49ers will be scrambling for another stadium site. Candlestick Park and the Candlestick point location will not work and neither will Hunters Point Naval Ship Yard. The York's were not too keen on the toxic clean up idea at the Naval Shipyard and the cost and time and chances that the clean up would be a success and would be risky health wise. The idea of building on an old toxic dump site just doesn't sit too well. Also the neighborhood is noted to have statistically the highest crime rate in the City and there is no decent public transit to the park. The Naval Yard as it stands is not a magnet to keep the 49ers in San Francisco. The only other place that the 49ers have if the Santa Clara measure loses in March is China Basin near AT&T Park. The parking lot area near AT&T Park would be the best ideal location and a stadium build near AT&T Park would be the best place to locate a new 49ers Water front Park. This would require cooperation from the Giants to approve certain zoning and to welcome their football neighbors which would actually enhance their business that has dropped off this season. The idea to have the Giants and 49ers playing next to each other would help each others working situations. The Santa Clara Council and Mayor Mahan look like they have it in the bag but if the Fleck campaign and Mayor Newsom, the City, and even Senator Dianne Feinstien throwing in her hat into the political ring to stop the Niners from leaving the City are working forces the Santa Clara measure moving the 49ers to Santa Clara could go down at the ballot box forcing the York's to look elsewhere. Tony the Tiger covers 49ers football for Sportstalk radio