The ’15 Veritix Sports Facilities & Franchises conference concluded on Friday with a walkthrough of Levi’s Stadium. But before getting to see the venue, 49ers CEO Jed York -- coming off a front-office pickup basketball game that morning -- sat down for a Q&A and addressed issues such as the NFL in L.A., how his organization operates and the process behind getting a stadium built. The following are highlights from the interview:
* On the NFL’s status with the L.A. market: “I think you’re going to see one -- if not two – teams in L.A. next season. The teams will begin construction, but also play in a temporary venue, because it’s hard to say, ‘Hey, we’re moving to L.A. We’re building a new stadium. But we’re going to stay here for the next two seasons.’ That’s a very tough sell. ... You’ve got the Inglewood site that is shovel ready. It’s much further ahead than any other site. ... Carson is a viable site, but Inglewood is ahead because you could literally start tomorrow.”
* On whether he ever doubted that Levi’s Stadium would get built: “No. If there is any idleness in a deal like this, then there is something wrong. Idleness kills big deals. So you always need to keep working. ... When you stop moving on a project like this, it generally dies.”
* On the feel of the new stadium: “It’s like building a new house or moving to a new place -- it doesn’t quite feel like home. And I think we saw that last year with getting our fans acclimated to the building. ... It’s more than anything just getting used to being in the building. How does it work? How does it function? Are the things that we designed being used the way we thought they would be? Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. So how do you adjust?”
* On the venue playing host to Super Bowl 50: “This is not a place that the NFL comes to a lot. But nobody puts on a major event better than the National Football League. So it’s using their expertise and combining that with our local expertise. ... The teams will be staying down here and playing at Stanford and San Jose State. Media day is down here at SAP Pavilion. But most of the people will be located in San Francisco. I think you’ll see a lot of events in San Francisco. We want to utilize the entire Bay Area, but also want to make it as seamless as possible when you’re traveling from event to event.”
* On his management philosophy: “We believe that in order to get better, you have to make mistakes. At many places, when the owner walks in the building, it becomes a different feeling. People don’t want to screw up. What we want to do is get that level of anxiety down and make sure we learn from our mistakes in order to get better.”
