The "back and forth maneuvering" in the 49ers ownership
dispute "is mostly about money," according to Matier & Ross
of the S.F. CHRONICLE, who report, "Particularly at issue is
the soaring cost of the stadium-mall project, which some
insiders now put at $600 million to $700 million." But
"it's also a fight over who will control the deal," the
49ers or co-Owner Eddie DeBartolo's DeBartolo Entertainment.
In addition, Matier & Ross report that "there have already
been talks" between the 49ers and S.F. Mayor Willie Brown
"about having the city or the state come up with more money"
for the project. Brown "still stands firm" on capping the
city's contribution at $100M, which was approved by voters
last June. Denise DeBartolo York's statement on Tuesday
that her board of directors has decided to slow down the
stadium deal "until they got a better handle on the costs
... clearly caught team president Carmen Policy off guard."
On local radio yesterday, Policy was "trying to put the best
face forward on what clearly was a public relations
nightmare." Policy said it wasn't his "recollection" that
the board voted to hold up the facility, but that it needed
some "very, very serious and in-depth attention to some of
the numbers before we took the next step in terms of
securing interim financing." In light of the media "crush,"
Policy issued a press release in jest saying he was going to
Tierra del Fuego and the South Pole on a three-week
expedition study (S.F. CHRONICLE, 1/29).
REAX: A S.F. CHRONICLE editorial states that even if
the DeBartolos "are getting cold feet" on building the
stadium/mall complex, "they should live up to the deal they
made with San Francisco taxpayers last year" (CHRONICLE,
1/29). In San Jose, Ann Killion: "The feeling last spring
that the stadium was a hurry-up, not-quite-thought-out deal
seems to have been correct. DeBartolo has moved a little
too fast in too many places, and now it seems, he's run
himself right into a wall" (MERCURY NEWS, 1/29).
