NFL Approves $200M Financing Plan For 49ers' New Santa Clara Stadium

The NFL Thursday 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.” 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 (Daniel Kaplan, SportsBusiness Journal). In San Jose, Howard Mintz in a front-page piece notes the amount "is the second largest contribution in history from the league for a new stadium." The NFL contributed $300M "for a joint stadium project for the New York Giants and New York Jets, and $150 million for stadiums in Dallas and Indianapolis." There had been "speculation the NFL would press the 49ers and Oakland Raiders to share the Santa Clara stadium in order to secure the financing, but York said there is no link to the $200 million contribution." York said, "We've been asked to keep the communications open." He added that he "worked out and had lunch with Raiders owner Mark Davis earlier Thursday in Indianapolis" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 2/3).

MONEY TALKS: In S.F., Stephanie Lee notes Mayor Ed Lee "was not willing to concede the team was leaving the city, but his spokeswoman, Christine Falvey, acknowledged what city officials have privately said for years: Santa Clara will have to stumble for 49ers games to stay" in S.F. Falvey said, "San Francisco has always said that we have a solid plan B in place. San Francisco will always be there." Some S.F. officials "had been pinning their hopes largely on two factors: the 49ers not being able to line up financing for the stadium, and the league preferring the cachet of a San Francisco waterfront site over a parking lot next" to Great America theme park. York said of the NFL's stadium contribution, "We were only counting on $150 million, but it just goes to show the continued strength and support of the NFL and the owners of the team toward what will be an iconic building" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/3). Also in S.F., Gwen Knapp writes the "enormous financial responsibility taken on by Santa Clara almost makes San Francisco’s fumbles on a stadium deal seem tolerable to a city dweller." But with a "little finesse and minimal public financing, San Francisco might have held onto the team." Knapp: "Instead, we had a dilettante serving as mayor, and by the time he moved onto the weighty agenda of a lieutenant governor, Santa Clara had already voted" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/3).  

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE RAIDERS? CSNBAYAREA.com's Ray Ratto wrote the Raiders are a "franchise in serious flux, and without knowing what will confront Mark Davis in the next few months or years, the Raiders really can’t be counted on as a construction partner, neither in the Bay Area or in Los Angeles." Now that the Raiders "are not to be co-tenants in Santa Clara, presumably by their own choice, they either have to find their own billion-dollar sugar daddies while staying in Oakland, or look to get out while the getting is lucrative" (CSNBAYAREA, 2/2).