Some notes on the Sep 05 Commonwealth Club panel

Mayor Mahan was outnumbered 3-to-1 by the panel on the 49ers at the Commonwealth Club. Former 49ers General Manager Carmen Policy was clear about his preference for San Francisco, and he said that the NFL would prefer the 49ers to remain in San Francisco. Foreshadowing? Insider knowledge?

The SF Redevelopment Agency's Michael Cohen, who is in charge of the Hunters Point development project, made a strong case for that area. He mentioned contacts between Newsome and John York and said that the hazardous clean-up was mostly a "red herring" because the place selected for a stadium is one of the cleanest areas of the old Navy facility.

Ann Killion deflated some of Mayor Mahan's arguments for Santa Clara as a site but admitted that she believed that the 49ers should always be a "San Francisco" team.

On the face of it, Mayor Mayan did make a good case for the Santa Clara location, but she provided some data (such as the number of "available" parking spaces in the area) and assertions (a dozen highway exits within one mile of the stadium site) that are easily disputed.

No current 49er principals were on the panel, but there were one or more in the audience. Listening to the audience and talking to a few afterwards, I believe the majority of people there supported retaining the 49ers in San Francisco.