Things we learn from today’s Scott Ostler column in the San Francisco Chronicle:
- Ostler is rooting for a new 49ers stadium in Santa Clara, because “if the 49ers move out of the Bay Area, my job becomes less fun.”
- Many 49ers fans are really angry at the team for 1) charging so much for seat licenses to even get the right to buy tickets, 2) shifting season-ticket holders around so they’re not with the fans they’ve sat with for years, and 3) putting all the non-luxury seats on one side of the field, looking into the sun. As one longtime ticket holder memorably wrote to Ostler: “They’ll have a beautiful new stadium, but without the legacy of a 49ers faithful fan base. They’ve killed our joy and dissed our loyalty. I hope the seagulls take revenge on the Yorks and [ticket sales company Legends VP Al] Guido’s outfit!”
A bunch of fans wrote to Ostler that they’d be declining the chance to renew their tickets at the new stadium, but we’ll see whether there will be other fans lining up to take their place. At the least, though, the 49ers owners have to be a smidge worried about having to institute New York Jets-style last-minute seat discounts if it turns out they priced tickets too high.
The PSL sales are supposed to go to pay down the $950 million in loans taken on by Santa Clara’s Stadium Authority, so Santa Clarans should be worried about PSL sales.
Interesting that the season ticket holders don’t seem to care about the debt Santa Clara’s agency has taken on for the stadium – they only care when the $$ hit their wallet; they don’t care about Santa Clara.
You honestly expected season ticket holders to care about Santa Clara’s debt? Most of them probably don’t even know about any debt Santa Clara even took on (assuming they did take on debt since that’s not exactly clear due to the added layers of protection for the city vis-a-vis the Stadium Authority and the various tax shields that provides. When it’s that murky, and the local paper is the Murky News I’d be shocked if anyone who didn’t feel like digging a little didn’t know anything about the financing.
Well, I think season ticket holders, if they think about it at all, would expect that the City of Santa Clara would be protecting their own interests.
Because prime seats at the venue will be a valuable commidity, I really think the the city council, which serves as the stadium authority, should have to purchase their own seat licenses and buy their own tickets if they want to attend games.
And if they do it like any other stadium they will. Take San Diego for instance. They either need to purchase their own tickets or if they use the “city box” they have to sign in for every game along with every party they bring to the box (all of which is promptly printed on the front page of the paper the next day).
I know that college and pro are very different, but the Wall Street Journal had an article on Cal taking in something like $125M less in donor commitments to seats (the college equivalent of PSLs) than they expected. Their stadium opens this fall. I realize that college and pro football are different, but it is more or less the same market and I would be surprised if the 49ers hit their goal.
The PSLs aren’t going to be used to make up the *owner’s share*? That’s surprising, I thought PSLs were for the owners of the teams to pay for their side of it. I haven’t all the details of the Santa Clara stadium but from what I’ve seen elsewhere, PSLs aren’t to benefit anyone except the owners. The only way I’d see the NFL agree to this was *maybe* if SC county was picking up the entire tab.
Color me confused.
Cujo – It’s the City of Santa Clara (pop 117,000) not the County of Santa Clara which has the Stadium Authority which is footing the bill for the stadium.
The PSL’s and naming rights, pouring rights, concessionaire rights are supposed to go towards the $950 Million in loans. That goes all the way back to the Term Sheet. The City of Santa Clara’s agency, the Stadium Authority, is the one selling the PSLs, not the 49ers. That way the PSL buyers don’t have to pay sales tax, and the risk is on the city’s agency if the PSLs don’t sell. The owners have created a Limited Liability Company, Stadco, which has shoveled its loan responsibilities onto Santa Clara’s Stadium Authority. It is the Authority which is taking on $950 million in loans, and which will have to refinance those loans when construction is completed, minus whatever is taken in from PSLs, naming rights, etc.
Note that the voters never agreed to this – there were no loans disclosed in the June 2010 Measure J stadium ballot measure. That’s why people here wanted the chance to vote on the loans.
Also note that Santa Clara is not party to any of the NFL revenue for the stadium.
That in my opinion was the biggest “Ruse” in this whole bs deal, that the Yorks got away with. With of course the help of our local media, that if the folks in Santa Clara didn’t vote Yes on Measure J, the Yorks would move the team out of the bay area, to LA…NOT!
The NFL respects the hand full of historical NFL franchises, and would not have allowed the Dorks to move out of the bay area. That was an empty threat by Jr., & his Family
They respect the historic franchises? Ask the folks in Baltimore, Cleveland and Houston how much they respected their historic franchises. Plus it’s the NFL, the league has almost no power to block a team move as Al Davis so effectively proved in the 80′s.
Dan,
Agree with you on the “historic” franchises. The NFL lost a bruising battle with Al Davis about an owner’s right to move a team (and I wholeheartedly believe in this right) and weren’t going to get involved with trying to prevent the team’s moving.
The 49ers really should have had no negotiating leverage with Santa Clara–it was at one point almost pathetic when once Jed got a bit flustered and threatened to leave the sweetheart city lease of 11 acres where team’s HQ is situated. The urgency to get a deal done never made any sense from the city’s perspective–that’s what really set alarm bells off to those opposed to this–and there was no logical business reason why the city should have caved to the 49ers demands.
Done deal now. If the PSL sales are sluggish then the city better hope big time that naming rights exceed expectations.
The Yorks threat was always, “if you don’t vote yes on Measure J we are moving out of the bay area.” Where to? It was always rumored to be LA, but as we can all see LA has survived very well with out an NFL team for over a decade…This was a ruse by the Yorks, who for all their worth are nothing but Shrewd, Ruthless, Greedy NFL Owners, who don’t care about nothing but their bottomline. Btw, for the record, I called the NFL in NYC, & they told me that they would never allow the 49ers to move out of the bay area
In my opinion it was always an empty threat by Jr., to make the “Shepple” vote “Yes” on Measure J. And soon the chickens will be coming home to “ruse.”
I sincerely regret that the 49ers did not move to LA. The Bay Area is too enlightened and cultured for football. It’s sad that such esteemed institutions of education as Stanford and UC Berkeley have football teams, as well. Truly a reflection of our decadent culture.
I have a buddy who bought a SBL just recently and he has explained to me almost all the club seats have been sold already to “current season ticket holders”.
There are another 30,000 people on the wait list that does not open up until June as the 49ers are not close to being done with their current season ticket holder base.
The team just won 13 games last season and almost went to the Super Bowl if not for 2 muffed punts by Kyle Williams.
The 49ers fans are energized and are looking forward to 2014.
49ers fans are the most affluent in the league and it is no surprise to me most of the club seats and suites are already sold.
June is when the “less premium” seats and SBLs open up to the wait list.
It is very clear on why the 49ers agreed to cover the debt service. They are estimating a huge profit every year from this stadium.
Economist Andrew Zimbalist has predicted a 120M profit for the stadium……Debt service is paid down before anything else. It will be a slam dunk year to year covering it.
Most of the debt will be paid down upfront with the SBLs, suites, and naming rights.
One of the best deals in NFL history for a municipality.
SBSJ – If the club seats are selling so well as you claim, then why – as a current ‘Stick non-club seat holder have I gotten several emails, mailings, high pressure sales calls for me to buy club seats over the past few weeks? I am nothing special. Only been a season ticket holder for a few years, etc.
I simply do not believe you or the 49ers statements that the club seats are settling well.