Sources for Stadium Subsidy

It was quite a shock to read in yesterday's Mercury News (Theme-park owner willing to consider 49ers stadium ) that:

Mahan said she's encouraged by how city officials and consultants have identified almost two-thirds of the $160 million that the city would need to contribute to help the team build the $854 million stadium.

"This is becoming more and more doable the more we get into it," she said.

We at StadiumFacts.org have been following this issue pretty closely. Without City Staff's capable services, we can not be completely on top of everything. Perhaps we missed a detail or two.

I kind of doubt we missed $100 million.¹

To date, only two sources for this cash have been identified:

1. Issuing redevelopment bonds. This would raise $13.1 million. If the city were to reduce the amount of money invested in affordable housing, they could raise $45.3 million by issuing redevelopment bonds.
2. Leasing out city-owned land. The 7.6 acres under consideration are worth about $20 million. By tying up most of the remaining city-owned land in a 99 year lease, the city could get $2 million per year. But the city needs the money now (stadium builders won't wait 30 years to be paid), so the city would have to get the renter to pre-pay the rent. Unfortunately, that would only get us something like the current value of the land -- $20 million.

This comes to a grand total of $33.1 million ($65.3 million if we decrease affordable housing) cash identified. This is far less than two-thirds of the $180 million cash subsidy demanded by the 49ers. [Despite the claim from the Mayor and the 49ers, the city would need $180,000,000 in cash for this proposal -- $160,000,000 for the stadium itself PLUS $20,000,000 for site improvements (moving the substation.)]

What's so doable about that?

¹ -- We have a query in to City Staff to confirm all the details of the proposed funding sources, and will update you once we get a response.