November 30, 2006

49ers: Soon, we promise

The owners of the San Francisco 49ers are promising to proposed initial guidelines in January for a new stadium in Santa Clara, which could cost between $600 million and $800 million. According to the San Jose Mercury News, "the guidelines are expected to include a timeline, a method for seeking resident feedback, the effect on neighboring Great America theme park and what sources of public money will be ruled out to help pay for the $600 million to $800 million stadium."

Up the peninsula, meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle has uncovered documents showing the 49ers were in secret negotiations with Santa Clara officials for more than a year before the team's recent surprise announcement that it was abandoning plans for a San Francisco stadium in favor of the South Bay. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom charged that this revelation "does not indicate good faith," while 49ers officials say they were just trying to perform "due diligence"; San Francisco supervisor Tom Ammiano took the middle road, saying, "Was it disingenuous? Yes. But in my point of view, it's what's accepted as business practice and it's about the bottom line. That's the carnivorous part of it."

Finally, the San Francisco Bay Guardian reports that it seems the 49ers' waning passion for the Candlestick Point site was largely related to the fading housing market, and worries that the residential developer picked to build apartments alongside the proposed stadium couldn't make the finances work. "We're uncomfortable with the idea of Lennar paying for it, based on the current housing market," team CFO Larry MacNeil told the BG, also mentioning "the enormity of the garage, the decade-long duration of the project, and the need for state-enabling legislation" as reasons for ditching the site. Enormity?