49ers Tie Headquarters to Stadium Proposal

From an article by Patrick Hoge, San Francisco Chronicle, June 1st,2007

The San Francisco 49ers say that if Santa Clara doesn't pay about $160 million toward building a new football stadium, then the team probably will move its headquarters and training facility.
Team officials on Thursday released a consultant's estimate that 49ers' current headquarters in Santa Clara creates $30 million a year in direct local spending. Today, the city is expected to release its own economic analysis of the 49ers' proposal to build an $854 million stadium on city-owned land near the headquarters. A new stadium would bring another $42 million in direct annual spending, Rhoda has said.

Team owners John York, (right) and Denise DeBartolo York announced in November that they wanted to move to Santa Clara because they were dissatisfied with proposals to build a new stadium on San Francisco's Candlestick Point, where it would be surrounded with housing. The most recent proposal from San Francisco calls for building a stadium in the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

Santa Clara Mayor Patricia Mahan said city residents should seriously consider the potential impact of losing the 49ers' headquarters.

"I would hate to lose them,'' she said. "The 49ers have been a business in Santa Clara and a partner with Santa Clara for 20 years. People should remain aware of it.''

Councilman Dominic Caserta said Thursday that the question of losing the 49ers headquarters and training facility is a side issue, and the central question for him will be whether the public investment is worthwhile. But Caserta said that everything he had heard so far -- particularly the team's promise that it would be liable for both construction and operation cost overruns -- makes him optimistic about the potential for a deal.

"The more I discover, the more I'm enthused about this business proposal,'' Caserta said.