The 49ers' "unsettled ownership situation" could cost
San Francisco a chance to host the Super Bowl in 2003,
according to Ira Miller of the S.F. CHRONICLE. Although
team President Carmen Policy said yesterday that he "was
confident" about getting a stadium built in time for the
game, NFL officials at the league meetings "were not quite
so sure." NFL President Neal Austrian said that the stadium
project "would have to move forward significantly" by the
end of this year to be completed by the league's timetable.
Austrian: "I think we'd have to see a commitment on the part
of whoever is going to build the stadium that it's going to
get done." Miller writes that the league "clearly does not
have a handle" on who will end up controlling the team, and
Austrian said the league is "not going to get ... in the
middle of an intrafamily fight at this point." Several
sources said that they "expect" Policy to lead a group to
buy the team if the DeBartolos sell, but if Eddie DeBartolo
regains control of the team, they "wouldn't expect" Policy
to remain. A "well-placed" source told Miller that the
league "already was getting inquiries from outside parties
interested in buying the team" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 3/25).
BEST LAID PLANS? In San Jose, Jeordan Legon analyzed
the stadium situation, and wrote that nine months after
voters approved the project, "[k]ey players on the city's
side of the deal" have shifted to other projects, opponents
of the stadium "are mounting a new campaign," and rumors of
the team's sale "have rocked the deal to its foundations."
Despite "assurances" from S.F. Mayor Willie Brown that the
project will be built, "new questions are raised almost
weekly," and the deal has "few assurances to guarantee
completion." Some "insiders" say that Eddie DeBartolo's
latest strategy to regain control "could be to hand over his
real estate interests to his sister if she will turn over
total ownership" of the team (MERCURY NEWS, 3/24).
