Dear Santa Clarans,
On Tuesday evening, our City Council approved an additional $750,000 in consulting fees to be paid by our RDA for the 49ers' stadium subsidy "deal." That makes a total of $2,700,000 in we 've spent since April, 2007, for the Feasibility Study, the Term Sheet, and now, the Disposition and Development Agreement or DDA.
What now?
Well, it's time to convert the highly-defective Term Sheet from last June 2nd - and from your June 8th, 2010, Sample Ballots - into the binding DDA.
However, without some serious and much-needed changes, this DDA will set in stone a "deal" for a subsidized NFL stadium in our city which puts Santa Clarans at a gross disadvantage. See the actual sections of the Term Sheet, and please note:
- Section 9.1: The San Francisco 49ers, in fact, assume NO liability for any stadium operating cost overruns. They reserve to themselves the sole discretion to tell us what they will and will not reimburse to any Santa Clara Stadium Authority. This clause alone is a disaster for Santa Clarans.
- Section 4.3(a): The 49ers pay a miserable $180,000 in Fixed Ground Rent to our city in the first year, and only a million beginning in the year 2024. Our city gets only $8M in Fixed Rent during the stadium lease - a term over which the Great America theme park operator will pay us over $80 million.
- Section 16.1: The 49ers reserve to themselves the sole and exclusive right to sublease to a second NFL team - such as the Oakland Raiders. This right - and the dollars it generates - should be granted to the Santa Clara Stadium Authority, and not to Dr. John York.
- Section 2.4: The 49ers are charging Silicon Valley Power $20,000,000 to move the Tasman electric substation out of the way of the stadium. We've seen enough electric rate increases; we shouldn't be paying to move Tasman for the benefit of the 49ers. Hand that bill to Dr. York, please.
Before the Stadium Boosters on this City Council form a Santa Clara Stadium Authority - and seat themselves on it - we ask that Santa Clarans sound off. The Term Sheet is truly a lousy deal - and it should not inform the DDA.
Please write to the City Council today. Email them. Call them. Fax them.
Thanks for your continued support, and best regards,
Bill Bailey, Treasurer
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