Jul 18, 2006 9:30 pm US/Pacific
49ers Eye Santa Clara If Stadium Plan Fails
SANTA CLARA (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
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Santa Clara Assistant City Manager Ron Garratt said he has had two discussions with the team.
San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers would consider moving to Santa Clara if plans for a new San Francisco stadium at Candlestick Point fall through, team and city officials said Tuesday.
"If for whatever reason things don't work out in San Francisco, we need to have a backup," said Lisa Lang, vice president of communications for the 49ers.
Niners Unveil Stadium PlansTeam vice president and chief financial officer Larry MacNeil has met twice with Santa Clara city officials in the past month to discuss the option of building a stadium in the parking lot of the Great America amusement park, said Ron Garratt, Santa Clara's assistant city manager.
"We may be knocking on your door and looking at the parking lot," Garratt said 49ers Vice President Larry MacNeil told him.
The discussions about a Santa Clara stadium have been very preliminary, "at the 10,000-foot level," according to Garratt, with no mention of what the team would like the city to contribute or if the team's name would be changed to the Santa Clara 49ers upon relocation.
"They're aggressively committed to San Francisco," Garratt said.
The 49ers on Monday unveiled an updated design plan for a new stadium at Candlestick Point that would add enough seats to host a major event such as the Olympics.
Candlestick Point remains the 49ers "absolute top choice," Lang said. "We really do feel it's a spectacular site."
But the team has been "very up front" with the city of San Francisco that "it was very important we build a new stadium," she said.
Plans to replace the 46-year-old stadium at Candlestick Point have been under consideration since 1997, when city voters authorized a $100 million bond to help pay for the project.
The team hopes to finance the building of the new San Francisco stadium, estimated to cost between $600 million and $800 million, entirely through private funding.
But acquisition of that funding depends on city approval of a residential, entertainment, and retail complex on vacant land adjacent to the stadium, according to team officials.
Team owners John and Denise York plan to contribute "hundreds of millions" of dollars to finance the stadium pending the approval of the adjacent development, Lang said.
The team also expects funding from its' development partner, Lennar Corp., and between $20 million and $150 million from the NFL.
The planned 68,000-seat, open-air venue could be expanded up to 80,000 seats for larger events. The new stadium would offer expansive views of the city skyline and San Francisco Bay.
The extra seating was included to give San Francisco a single location with enough seats to host the opening and closing ceremonies of an Olympic Games. The new design has been included as part of San Francisco's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, said Lang.
The additional seats could also improve San Francisco's chances for hosting a Super Bowl or World Cup soccer events.
Lennar Corp. plans to present its proposal for the Candlestick Point property in the city's Bayview-Hunter's Point neighborhood later this summer.
The team wants to complete the new stadium by 2012.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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