There was a spirited crowd at Peterson Middle School on Wednesday night, eager to learn more about the most important City-wide initiative of the century -- Measure J, the Stadium Subsidy.
And, learn they did. Kolstad & Kennedy covered topics as varied as the technical minutia of redevelopment law, school financing, game-day public safety measures and the stadium's potential impact on our perilously overdrawn City budget.
They even discussed campaign finance reform:
While we were not able to capture every moment of the evening's proceedings, we have posted as much as we could on youtube, where you will find discussions on:
Sit back, grab a bag of popcorn & let the good times roll!
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
"Net Present Value" vs. "Actual Dollars"
Mayor Mahan & Councilmember Matthews have revolutionized the housing market with their discovery that "net present value figures ... are based on outdated economic assumptions" and that we should focus on "actual dollars" paid over 40 years!
Madam Mayor, I'll buy your home for $1 million -- a good $100,000 over the current market price. I'll pay you in 2050. Do we have a deal? Can you vacate by next Tuesday?
Fair Market Rent for the proposed stadium site is currently over $1.8 million per year. Even with the new Mahan-Matthews Math, that should be worth over $72 million in "actual dollars." Too bad the 49ers LLC only signed up for $40 million.
This is a bad deal -- with or without the lies the Mayor is spreading.
Madam Mayor, I'll buy your home for $1 million -- a good $100,000 over the current market price. I'll pay you in 2050. Do we have a deal? Can you vacate by next Tuesday?
Fair Market Rent for the proposed stadium site is currently over $1.8 million per year. Even with the new Mahan-Matthews Math, that should be worth over $72 million in "actual dollars." Too bad the 49ers LLC only signed up for $40 million.
This is a bad deal -- with or without the lies the Mayor is spreading.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Commonwealth Club discussion on "The Future of the 49ers"
Two weeks ago, I was invited to be a guest at a Commonwealth Club panel discussion entitled “After Further Review: The Future of the San Francisco 49ers.” The panelists were: Michael Cohen, Director of Base Reuse and Development, City and County of San Francisco; Ann Killion, Sportswriter, San Jose Mercury News; Patricia Mahan, Mayor, Santa Clara; and Carmen Policy, Former President and CEO, San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns. The moderator was Dan Ashley of ABC7 News.
It was a fascinating discussion.
I was most surprised by two issues. First, the San Francisco stadium plan is quite serious and moving ahead quickly. Michael Cohen, who is in charge of the redevelopment efforts at Hunters Point, made it clear that while they were shocked at the Yorks' sudden withdrawal from negotiations last November, they quickly regrouped and developed an aggressive stadium development schedule. They met with the 49ers organization last December to present their new timetable, and to date they have met every one of the benchmarks on that new schedule.
The second surprise was the very strong sentiment expressed by three of the four panelists that the 49ers should stay in San Francisco. While I expected Michael Cohen to be in favor of the site, it was probably Carmen Policy who painted the most vivid picture of the possibilities of the Hunters Point location. Policy was clear in his belief that the 49ers’ first priority is a new stadium, but he was also clear that even if the San Francisco deal is not quite as good, the team should stay in San Francisco. In fact, Policy indicated that “if the NFL had its druthers, the 49ers would stay in San Francisco,” as Mercury News reporter Mike Swift noted in his article about the discussion – “49ers Decision a Year Away.”
Cohen answered many of the objections that I have heard about the site and outlined the plans for transportation improvements in the area.
Ann Killion also expressed strong support for the team staying in San Francisco, and she knocked down many of the myths promoted by stadium supporters in Santa Clara.
While Patricia Mahan talked about an “entertainment district” in Santa Clara, Killion replied that football stadiums are not like other types of professional sports facilities. She said that with a football stadium, 70,000 people come in 10 times a year to see the game, and then they turn around and leave. They don’t stick around and spend money.
She also noted that public subsidies for stadiums are a very hard sell in this area because we have the examples both of what can happen when public subsidy goes wrong (see Raiders, Oakland) and of how stadiums can be built without public subsidies (see Giants, San Francisco.)
Mayor Mahan started reading a list of cities smaller than Santa Clara that host NFL football teams, but the moderator interrupted to say that it wasn’t about the size of the city, it was about the money. [As we’ve discussed here before – "A tale of two cities."]
I would highly recommend tuning in for the broadcast of the discussion. It will be aired this Thursday, September 20, on 1590AM. Here are the full details:
Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007
KLIV-AM 1590 kHz
7:00 PM and 10:00 PM
If you miss the broadcast, you may be able to listen to it or purchase a recording of it at the Commonwealth Club website. It’s not yet available there, but I will update this post with a link as soon as it’s available.
If you want to learn more about the stadium issue, this discussion provides an excellent analysis of the situation and the state of the current proposals.
It was a fascinating discussion.
I was most surprised by two issues. First, the San Francisco stadium plan is quite serious and moving ahead quickly. Michael Cohen, who is in charge of the redevelopment efforts at Hunters Point, made it clear that while they were shocked at the Yorks' sudden withdrawal from negotiations last November, they quickly regrouped and developed an aggressive stadium development schedule. They met with the 49ers organization last December to present their new timetable, and to date they have met every one of the benchmarks on that new schedule.
The second surprise was the very strong sentiment expressed by three of the four panelists that the 49ers should stay in San Francisco. While I expected Michael Cohen to be in favor of the site, it was probably Carmen Policy who painted the most vivid picture of the possibilities of the Hunters Point location. Policy was clear in his belief that the 49ers’ first priority is a new stadium, but he was also clear that even if the San Francisco deal is not quite as good, the team should stay in San Francisco. In fact, Policy indicated that “if the NFL had its druthers, the 49ers would stay in San Francisco,” as Mercury News reporter Mike Swift noted in his article about the discussion – “49ers Decision a Year Away.”
Cohen answered many of the objections that I have heard about the site and outlined the plans for transportation improvements in the area.
Ann Killion also expressed strong support for the team staying in San Francisco, and she knocked down many of the myths promoted by stadium supporters in Santa Clara.
While Patricia Mahan talked about an “entertainment district” in Santa Clara, Killion replied that football stadiums are not like other types of professional sports facilities. She said that with a football stadium, 70,000 people come in 10 times a year to see the game, and then they turn around and leave. They don’t stick around and spend money.
She also noted that public subsidies for stadiums are a very hard sell in this area because we have the examples both of what can happen when public subsidy goes wrong (see Raiders, Oakland) and of how stadiums can be built without public subsidies (see Giants, San Francisco.)
Mayor Mahan started reading a list of cities smaller than Santa Clara that host NFL football teams, but the moderator interrupted to say that it wasn’t about the size of the city, it was about the money. [As we’ve discussed here before – "A tale of two cities."]
I would highly recommend tuning in for the broadcast of the discussion. It will be aired this Thursday, September 20, on 1590AM. Here are the full details:
Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007
KLIV-AM 1590 kHz
7:00 PM and 10:00 PM
If you miss the broadcast, you may be able to listen to it or purchase a recording of it at the Commonwealth Club website. It’s not yet available there, but I will update this post with a link as soon as it’s available.
If you want to learn more about the stadium issue, this discussion provides an excellent analysis of the situation and the state of the current proposals.
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