NFL Facility Notes: 49ers Looking For Public Funding

Sources said that the 49ers will ask Santa Clara residents “to pick up as much as $200[M] in costs for the team’s planned new football stadium.” Team execs are preparing to give the city a formal financing plan, and they have “concluded that the deal will require significant municipal ‘investment’” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 3/19).

Packers Installing Hybrid Turf System At Lambeau Field

TURF BUILDERS: The Packers are installing a DD GrassMaster hybrid surface at Lambeau Field for $2.5-3M after “having to re-sod between the hash marks once if not twice” during recent seasons. The re-soddings cost around $100,000 in the spring and $40,000-50,000 during the season. However, the DD GrassMaster surface has been met with “decidedly mixed reviews” at both Heinz Field and Lincoln Financial Field. The Steelers installed a DD GrassMaster surface in ’03 and resurfaced it in ’05, but it was rated the worst grass field in the NFL in an NFLPA survey last year (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 3/18).

ENHANCING THEIR BID: The Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority (ASTA) has agreed to forfeit to the NFL an estimated $4M in taxes from game tickets, as well as an extra $350,000, in its bid for the 2011 Super Bowl. The Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee and the ASTA will pay around $250,000 each for game-day costs for Super Bowl XLII next February, but the league “no longer plans to help pay for game-day expenses.” Arizona is competing with Dallas and Indianapolis for the 2011 game (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 3/19).