The NFL approved $200M in league financing for the 49ers’ planned new stadium in Santa Clara, clearing one of the last hurdles for the first new football stadium in California since the '60s. “We have been working on this since 1997,” 49ers President & CEO Jed York told reporters after the owners' vote. “When you look at California, when you look at trying to build a new stadium in a state that doesn’t have too many new stadiums, this is a really big day not just for the 49ers but for the NFL and professional sports to make sure you have teams that have great facilities in the state of California.”
Asked about taking on around $850M of bank debt responsibility, York referred questions to Greg Carey of Goldman Sachs, which helped lead that financing. “It is a wonderful financial picture for the league and for the team,” he said. The league financing, which is separate from the bank debt, is the first under a new version of the NFL's stadium-funding program. Unlike the old system, in which all the money essentially was grants, part of the new program involves loans. So some of the $200M is grant, and some loan.
York said he expected initial construction to begin soon. The team hopes to have the stadium open by '14, though it could be '15. The owners also formally approved Mark Wan as a minority investor in the 49ers and discussed the status of the Vikings stadium efforts. The meeting was one of the shortest the league could recall, lasting less than 45 minutes.
