September 13, 2004
Newsom twosome
It seems that new San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is intent on reversing his city's two-decade-long history of saying no to sports subsidy demands: First he's opening stadium talks with the San Jose Earthquakes, now he's saying he wants to be "proactive" on a new stadium for the 49ers. Newsom told the San Jose Mercury News: "This lease is about to expire, the life of this stadium is really in question as well, and the deferred maintenance requirements are such that we're going to have to make some tough financial choices if we don't resolve this new stadium." (For those playing along at home, that's items 1 and 5 in the stadium-grubbers' playbook, as described in chapter four of Field of Schemes.)
Though a 49ers spokesman insisted that the team has no thoughts of leaving town, that didn't stop Newsom from declaring that a new stadium was necessary to keep the 49ers from moving: "I'm going to fight hard to make sure this team stays. Plus, if it happens on my watch and they leave, I won't be able to live that down. I take that personal."
