The Santa Clara 49ers

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle / June 9th, 2010

Santa Clara voters Tuesday approved Measure J, the San Francisco 49ers' plan to build a $937 million stadium in their community.

SNIP

Santa Clara officials and several hundred stadium supporters packed into an American Legion hall to celebrate the anticipated passage of Measure J. While precinct results were slow to arrive, the stadium supporters exuded confidence. By 9:30 p.m., the pro-Measure J leaders already were handing out awards and congratulating each other for a measure well won.

SNIP

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has argued that Santa Clara's stadium election does not guarantee that the 49ers will leave the city, which will move ahead with plans for a new stadium site as part of the Hunters Point Shipyard redevelopment project.

SNIP

The vote came after the football team spent an astonishing $4 million-plus on a campaign in a city with only 46,000 registered voters. Signs backing the 49ers sprang up in front yards across the community as the team carpet-bombed the city with TV spots, radio ads and campaign mailers.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/08/MNR41DPU38.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0qLr5t4Tf

Epic fail by the city of San Francisco -- akin to three fumbles in the fourth quarter. :thumbsdown:

[Upton]

1. 2014 here we come!!

[madinmaryland]

3. A cheap replica of the Baltimore Raven's stadium.

:puke:

[Upton]

8. Compared to Candlestick..

it'll look like a palace. And it will guarantee the 49ers continued presence in the Bay Area.

One thing it won't be is a monument to greed and excess such as Jones built down in Arlington..

[madinmaryland]

9. A billion dollars is a billion dollars, Upton. It damn well better look like

a palace for that amount of money. I should wouldn't want a stadium worth nearly a billion dollars to look like a cheap replicate of the Baltimore Ravens stadium.

:puke:

[madinmaryland]

2. How far is Santa Clara from Frisco?

Isn't the current trend by teams to go to the center of the city??

[Auggie]

4. About 30 minutes, but it may as well be 300 miles

The City has been screwing around with various stadium proposals since the mid 1990's, but too many egos got involved to make any headway. Epic failure.

On edit: I'll add it before you do -- Eddie D's felony charge sure didn't help matters. Nor did his disastrous proposal to connect the new stadium to a shopping mall.

[Upton]

7. Whatever happened to the proposal Willie Brown pushed through?

and since Newsom has been mayor, he's acted like the 49ers don't exist...until Measure J got on the ballot that is.

Personally, I'm fine with all this. I grew up in Los Altos, my dad still lives in Palo Alto. Santa Clara Co. is the most populous county in the Bay Area and the 49er's training facilities are already there...so, why not?

[Auggie]

11. Hell if I know

I don't have issues with the S.F. Peninsula. And yes, it could be worse. Much worse. Imagine if they were moving to (forgive me) L.A.

I guess I look at AT&T Park and see how it transformed that neighborhood virtually overnight. Remember what a wasteland it once was? Same thing could happen with Hunter's Point.

[KamaAina]

14. 30 minutes? With what? A jet pack?!

More like an hour even with no traffic (and as we all know, there's rarely any traffic on Game Day :sarcasm: ).

[Auggie]

19. Caught my error

I used to make it from Evergreen (San Jose) to Mission Dolores (San Francisco) in an hour -- but that was on Sunday evenings. That's why 30 minutes seemed plausible until I got to thinking about it.

[JonLP24]

5. Bing Maps

say 45 miles.

[Auggie]

6. Thanks

[madinmaryland]

10. Wouldn't that be nearly an hour's drive from Frisco??

I thought Frisco was supposed to be really "green". That doesn't make a lot of sense. Will they be extending train lines to the stadium?

[Upton]

12. No way...

the new 49er stadium is no more than 30-35 minutes straight down 101..Anyway, the bulk of the 49ers fan base is already living in Santa Clara Co...

[madinmaryland]

16. At 3 in the morning??

[davidinalameda]

22. the bulk?

how do you come up with that?

[Auggie]

13. With traffic, at least an hour. Probably longer.

San Jose Light Rail has a station, but nothing directly from San Francisco. CalTrain looks like it's too far to walk from.

On edit: I think the Yorks are saying "Fuck You, San Francisco."

[KamaAina]

15. You'll like this little factoid

http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/matierandross

It was a lesson learned by 49ers President Jed York when he came across a student over the weekend.

"Are you going to vote?" York asked the student.

"No, I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan," the student replied.

At which point York whipped out his cell phone, punched up Cowboys owner Jerry Jones - and had Jones explain why the guy should vote for the stadium.

:rofl:

edit: and quit calling it Frisco. :spank: It is San Francicso! :-)

[madinmaryland]

17. Why would a Cowboy's fan vote for York's Frisco Boondoggle!!

FRISCO!!

:rofl:

[KamaAina]

18. Because St. Jerry told him to personally.

[madinmaryland]

20. Nice picture of the Fricso Kids!

[El Supremo]

21. And the fog descends onto Frisco's Golden Gate:

[thatsrightimirish]

23. I know this is old

But as someone that lives in San Francisco I think this is great. The city shouldn't have to give any money to an ownership group whose only accomplishment is running a once great franchise into the ground. And lets face it, after the PSL's no regular person will be able to afford going to games anyway.

[Auggie]

24. As I posted up-thread,

as much as I dislike losing the team in San Francisco, the prospect of losing them to L.A. is 1000 times worse.

[madinmaryland]

25. The Los Angeles 49'ers??

:rofl:

[Auggie]

26. Los Angeles Stadium:

From wiki:

Los Angeles Stadium is the working title for a proposed 75,000-seat NFL stadium in Industry, California. Edward P. Roski, a part-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA and Los Angeles Kings of the NHL, has announced plans for the stadium on the northern side of the interchange of state routes 57 and 60, 22 miles (35 km) east of Downtown Los Angeles with the purpose of attracting an NFL team to the Los Angeles region. The Greater Los Angeles Area has been the nation's largest media market without an NFL team since 1995.

Roski has said he will not break ground on the stadium until he has a commitment from an NFL team to move to Los Angeles.] In exchange for footing the bill to construct the stadium, Roski wants at least a 30 percent ownership stake in any team that moves to Los Angeles to play there.

The National Football League is not planning on expanding and the developers of the new stadium stated on their website that their tenant will be an existing team "that needs to move because they cannot build a new stadium or financially they are not successful in their current market. We can not disclose which teams we are talking with."

SNIP

... On October 14, 2009 the state Senate approved a bill to exempt the proposed stadium from state environmental law, (effectively killing lawsuits filed by citizen groups). Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill shortly thereafter. This apparently clears the last regulatory hurdle for the project: the only remaining barrier (aside from the money) would be the small detail of finding an NFL team to fill the stadium. The San Diego Chargers, St. Louis Rams, Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders, Minnesota Vikings, and the San Francisco 49ers have been identified by Roski and others as possible prime tenants of the new stadium.

LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Stadium

Stadium website: http://www.losangelesfootballstadium.com/

[HuckleB]

27. Woo hoo! More corporate taxpayer subsidies. Ugh.

This is why I wish I was strong enough to ignore professional sports altogether.