Santa Clarans,
On the evening of June 7, we learned that our costs to subsidize the San Francisco 49ers are going to increase greatly before we even see a stadium finance plan next summer.
But the most jaw-dropping part of the evening's meeting came in one of the 49ers' own presentations before Council. The team's representatives actually claimed that their contribution to the stadium's "development" was their costs for their own luxury boxes in that stadium!
Please note from the "Stadium Term Sheet", Section 11.2b, that ALL luxury box income for NFL events goes directly to the 49ers themselves - not to any Santa Clara City Agency. Not only that: The 49ers collect even their base luxury box fees for non-NFL events as well. (You'll find exactly this language in your Sample Ballots of June 8, 2010, too - Measure J gives that luxury box dough only to the 49ers.)
This is worth noting because of the media coverage this weekend concerning the team's sale of those luxury suite leases. At the same time that the 49ers are putting $138 million into their own pockets, they're forcing the Santa Clara Stadium Authority pay the PSL* marketer's fee of $6,000,000 - with interest. See here and here, Section 7b.
What the San Francisco 49ers raked in this weekend compensates them many times over for any 'development' costs they may have spent on their luxury boxes. But that isn't news, and it doesn't help Santa Clara's Agencies to raise a single penny for the stadium subsidy itself.
The real news is how much the 49ers will taking out of the stadium - and how little will be left for Santa Clara and for Santa Clarans.
Thanks for your support,
William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,
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*Let's call them by their correct name: They are indeed Personal Seat Licenses.
Same as they were in Oakland.
*Let's call them by their correct name: They are indeed Personal Seat Licenses.
Same as they were in Oakland.
