December 20, 2007
Santa Clara faces 49ers stadium shortfall
The Santa Clara city council got its first detailed look at the finances of the $854 million San Francisco 49ers stadium proposal Tuesday night. The highlights:
- The city will be on the hook for $222 million in costs, including building a new parking garage and moving an electrical substation, but the redevelopment agency funds and hotel taxes that have been proposed to be pay for it would raise only $171 million. 49ers CFO Larry MacNeil said the city could fill the gap with proceeds from non-football events and naming-rights money - though since the team has also said it would use naming-rights money to help pay for its own share, it's not entirely clear what MacNeil was talking about.
- Cedar Fair, the owners of the Great America amusement park whose parking lot is the intended site of the new stadium, have softened a bit on their opposition to the project now that it would use an overflow parking lot rather than their main lot, but still presented a list of conditions before they would okay the plan, including that the team and city reimburse them for lost revenue from days they had to close to avoid being overwhelmed by traffic from 49ers fans. Cedar Fair also wants a share of parking revenues from the new stadium (since football fans would be using their parking lots), cutting into funds currently slated to pay off stadium construction costs.
- Santa Clara city policy is that companies should pay rent on leased city land; MacNeil told the council, "We don't believe the deal will support those additional payments from the team."
- The city is only projecting to get $19 million in new tax revenues from the project over 30 years, while its redevelopment agency would lose $90 million over the same time span. "We feel the return on investment to the city should be better than what the numbers indicate," city manager Jennifer Sparacino told the council.
The city council could vote on whether to move forward with the 49ers stadium plan at its January 15 meeting.
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