An Extensive Look At Rising Owners Jed York, Brandt Andersen
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Jed York Gaining Power
In 49ers Organization |
49ers Owner & VP/Strategic Planning JED YORK does not make "all the important decisions, but he will someday," according to a front-page piece by Tom FitzGerald of the S.F. CHRONICLE. York has "other less-defined but more expansive responsibilities with the 49ers, namely their face and their future." York, the son of team Owners JOHN and DENISE DEBARTOLO YORK, last month presided over a team news conference to announce the firing of coach MIKE NOLAN, and "that's the way all three Yorks want it." York: "A roomful of reporters -- that's not going to bother me." 49ers COO ANDY DOLICH said that York is "perfectly suited to his role." Dolich: "He's grown up in this organization and in this business. There's a lot to be said for that." FitzGerald noted one of York's "main tasks is the effort to build a stadium in Santa Clara," and York said that the "financial crisis hasn't stopped that." York: "We're looking at a ballot in either June or (next) November. Hopefully we can get the environmental process done so we can do it in June." York previously worked for financial services firm Guggenheim Partners, and the experience "has come in handy with the 49ers, especially when it comes to borrowing big bucks for a new stadium during a credit crisis." York: "You look at some stadiums being built now, I think they're continuing to do pretty well on presales, naming rights and seat licenses, but obviously the climate has changed dramatically from where we were six months ago. They're on the hook with lenders for hundreds of millions of dollars. We're not to that point yet. It's good that we don't have loan documents and construction costs signed, because I think you're going to see some cost deflation" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 11/2).
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Brandt Andersen Looking To Build New
10,000-Seat Arena For Utah Flash |
MAJOR LEAGUE ASPIRATIONS: The WASHINGTON POST's Les Carpenter, in a sports-section cover story, wrote under the subhead, "Multimillionaire Brandt Andersen Is A Minor League Basketball Owner With Major League Aspirations On And Off The Court." NBA D-League Utah Flash Owner BRANDT ANDERSEN is running the franchise "as if it were in the NBA, luring huge advertisers and signing a deal to put its home games on local television in just its first season." The NBA has come to see the 31-year-old Andersen as a "legitimate piece of its future, the essence of what it desires in its newest group of owners." NBA Deputy Commissioner & COO ADAM SILVER: "We only thought of the D-League as developing players and coaches, we never thought of the league as developing owners, too." Andersen said that he has told D-League officials to "feel free to let him try anything, including testing the new nets and balls the league is considering using." Andersen said of the D-League, "I see this as the entrepreneurial arm of the league. That's how we branded it. Here it's not minor league basketball, it's an extension of the NBA." Andersen said that he has "talked to the NBA about ownership possibilities but the conversations have not been serious, in part because he does not want to leave Utah right now and the only local team, the Jazz, is not for sale and probably won't be anytime soon." In the meantime, Andersen is looking to construct a new 10,000-seat arena for the Flash, and he "wants to construct what looks like a small city around the arena on a dusty parcel of land" in the town of Lehi, Utah. The land is "just 100 acres and yet will have compressed onto it Andersen's gleaming new arena, a five-star hotel that will be the tallest building in Utah and rows of condominiums and stores that will rise on bridges over two man-made lakes." Andersen hired architect FRANK GEHRY to design the facility (WASHINGTON POST, 11/2).
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