49ers Stadium: Can it be? A Term Sheet?

At last. Maybe.

After two years of secrecy, SIXTY-EIGHT closed-session meetings and $1.1 MILLION of RDA money spent on consultants' fees: Your City Council has set a date for a public session so that we can finally see the 49ers' stadium "term sheet".

This public session will be held on Tuesday evening, June 2, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers.

Santa Clara Plays Fair urges as many residents as can possibly attend to be there - and that they make themselves heard.

Now, actual dollar figures will be scarce until the Agenda for this meeting appears on the City Clerk's Agenda webpage, probably on Friday evening, May 29th. However, there is a dollar figure that SCPF urges Santa Clarans to insist upon:

$0.00.

That means, "NO SUBSIDY". But last evening, it became abundantly clear even from the limited information that City Council was willing to share that they still insist upon spending public money, probably close to ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS, to subsidize an NFL stadium costing a cool BILLION.

That is just plain wrong - especially considering the economic turmoil in which we now find ourselves and our City. We highly recommend that all Santa Clarans speak out, and that they reject this subsidy out of hand - loudly, often and in Chambers on June the 2nd.

Is it unrealistic to insist upon the "zero dollar" figure above? Not at all. One need examine only the funding of the Meadowlands Stadium for two other NFL teams, the New York Jets and Giants. The two teams secured 100% private financing, with the NFL chipping in. Total cost? $1.6 Billion - 60% MORE than the subsidized stadium being forced upon Santa Clara.

And the Meadowlands' public subsidy?:

$0.00.

There is absolutely no reason why that cannot be done here - and both our City Council and the San Francisco 49ers know that.



Thanks for all of your support,

Bill Bailey
Treasurer

49ers Stadium: Al Davis - The Devil You DO Know...

Last week, the commercial press gushed all over the millionaire Yorks coupling with the millionaire Al Davis on a joint 49ers-Raiders stadium. The budget disaster in Sacramento finally pushed it off the front page. But it's still worth looking at - hard:

First: How does a joint stadium eliminate the massive subsidy being demanded by the 49ers? Sorry, but if two multi-millionaire NFL team owners can build a joint venue, then all public subsidies should definitely be off the table. These two team owners - and not our RDA - should be covering the construction and the annual operating costs of any stadium. The silence of the press on this issue poorly serves Santa Clara and Santa Clarans.

Second: Why did Al Davis spend close to 27 years suing nearly all of his major partners? In 1980, Al Davis sued his own League to get out of Oakland. In 1995, he sued them and Oakland/Alameda County over his return there. In July of 2007, the last such legal action - again blaming the NFL for the fiasco in Oakland twelve years earlier - was finally tossed out of court. John Ryan of the Mercury News wondered: When do the costs of Mr. Davis' lawsuits exceed the total price of an NFL stadium?

Not funny.

This "shotgun stadium" is the second time NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has interceded in the badly-flawed stadium gamble - while managing barely to mention our city by name. (See below.)

This time, Commissioner Goodell isn't simply demanding that the San Francisco 49ers make Al Davis a partner. Without coming right out and saying it: He's really demanding that WE Santa Clarans make Al Davis a partner.

Talk about the Devil we do know: Imagine Al Davis ever agreeing (1) to share equal responsibility for a billion-dollar stadium, (2) to pay our General Fund a rightful Ground Lease - or even (3) to sign a lease lasting as long as the massive indebtedness that both teams are demanding of our RDA. That's until the year 2026.

Preposterous.

Conclusion: Stadium supporters should stop wasting our time with distractions such as this one. It's time that they told Santa Clarans - honestly - what they're really demanding: Public subsidies amounting to scores of millions of dollars.



Thanks for your support,

Bill Bailey
Treasurer

(Click here for more than you really wanted to know about our new "stadium partners".)

49ers Stadium: Other People's Money

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's recent visit to Oakland was reported by the San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/15/SPDL14O310.DTL

When asked about concerns that either the 49ers or the Raiders would move to Los Angeles, Commissioner Goodell dodged the question - but he also inadvertently gave a pretty clear idea about the agenda of millionaire sports team owners in general:

"We're worried about the California market in general. If you look at our stadium situations - San Diego is trying to address (its) stadium situation, San Francisco, the Oakland Raiders ... I think collectively we have to try to address these matters on a statewide level as well as in the local communities," Goodell said.

What's "statewide" got to do with it? Don't outrageously-priced stadiums "serve" localities rather than State residents?

Californians, and not just Santa Clarans, may want to prepare themselves. As more and more communities challenge that old orthodoxy about high-priced athletic stadiums being "good for business", athletic leagues and not just the NFL are lobbying State legislators, and not City Councils, to get their heaping of public money.

My guess: Commissioner Goodell may well have taken a page from Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen, Microsoft billionaire. When Seattlites made it clear that they would probably never go for local bond issues sucking hundreds of millions of dollars out of the public purse and blowing them into sports stadiums - Mr. Allen simply went to Olympia, Washington, to get what he wanted:

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2005/03/promises_promis_2.html

Although quite a few Washingtonians may never have realized it: $300 million dollars in public monies were provided by all of them for the very Qwest stadium in which few of them will ever set foot.

Seattle City Councilmember Nick Licata even testified before the U.S. House Domestic Policy Subcommittee on Taxpayers Financed Stadiums, Conventions Centers, and Hotels on exactly this issue. The text of his testimony, a mere two pages worth, is very well thought-out and worth a read by all of us here in Santa Clara:

http://domesticpolicy.oversight.house.gov/documents/20070329144725-38118.pdf

If Commissioner Goodell is truly advocating an end run around local funding decisions controlled by local taxpayers, taxpayers should be deeply concerned. Expressed in starkest terms: If you don't give millionaire NFL owners like Dr. John York what they want, they'll go lobby in Sacramento and they'll take it from you anyway.

Now, it remains to be seen how even Commissioner Goodell and the NFL owners would even dare to ask for money at State level, especially with the State budget deficit now pushing some $42 billion.

But from what we've read and seen out of the stadium supporters - it sure wouldn't stop them from trying.



With best regards,
Bill Bailey
Treasurer

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We at Santa Clara Plays Fair would like to wish all of you a very fine Christmas, and every success in 2009!

Decision '08: Follow-up

Santa Clara Plays Fair would like to thank all of you who contacted us and who volunteered for the candidates' campaigns in the November 4th election!

Although we did not get all of the changes we still firmly support: We're quite glad to see Councilwoman Jamie McLeod returned to her seat on the City Council. We believe that Councilwoman McLeod will be the one to carefully scrutinize any "deals" with the San Francisco 49ers requiring multi-million dollar subsidies from Santa Clarans.

During the precinct walks we did, many Santa Clarans asked us why the stadium subsidy issue wasn't even on their ballots.

That's a good question for our leaders - and for the San Francisco 49ers.

It's pretty clear that, with conditions in Santa Clara as well as across the nation, those attempting to make us help pay for a millionaire's NFL football stadium could not afford to have Santa Clarans expressing their will on this issue too soon:

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10968380

While we note that Councilwoman McLeod and challengers Emerson, Hardy, Lowery and Bouza were the most forthright on the issue, the rest of the incumbents only spoke of the stadium subsidy issue when they were specifically asked - or they completely ignored the stadium subsidy in their campaign literature. Surely this was no accidental omission.

Unfortunately, this will be the rule for the somewhat new City Council. It will be true for the next six months or so at least, due to the confidentiality agreement demanded by the 49ers after CFO Larry MacNeil's presentation to City Council of last April 24th.

It will be important for us as City residents to keep the issue alive while our City Council continues with the "Closed Session" meetings that it has been conducting since May of 2007 - some 41 such secret meetings as of September 30th of this year.

If you have any questions about this process or about the stance of Santa Clara Plays Fair on this issue, please contact us any time.


Best regards,
Bill Bailey
Treasurer

Decision '08: Meet Our City Council Candidates!

Friends of Santa Clara Plays Fair, the Candidate's Forum is to be held this evening at Santa Clara City Hall, 1500 Warburton Drive, at 7:00 pm in City Council Chambers.

Also, please take a few moments to meet our candidates for the Santa Clara City Council through their websites:


Seat 3:Mary EMERSON
http://maryemerson.org/wordpress/

Seat 4: (WRITE IN:) Karen HARDY
http://writeinhardyseat4.blogspot.com/

Seat 6: Brian LOWERY
http://www.lowery4citycouncil.com/

Seat 7: Councilwoman Jamie McLEOD
http://jamiemcleod.org/blog/


Thank you for all of your support - and for your support of these four fine individuals on November 4th!


Best regards,
Bill Bailey
Treasurer

Decision '08: Santa Clara Plays Fair recommends....

We were very pleased to meet as many of you as we did at the Art and Wine Festival.

But if you didn't get our endorsement cards for City Council Seats 3, 4, 6 and 7, Santa Clara Plays Fair endorses and recommends your vote for:

Seat 3: Mary EMERSON
Seat 4: (WRITE IN:) Karen HARDY
Seat 6: Brian LOWERY
Seat 7: Councilwoman Jamie McLEOD

Councilwoman McLeod, of course, is the incumbent who's been willing to analyze the stadium "deal" in great detail. She's done a fine job for us in Seat 7, and she should be returned to the Council so that she can continue working for all Santa Clarans.

The main issue we see is the massive subsidy of a millionaire's NFL football stadium with scores of millions of dollars of YOUR money. That's cash and RDA bonds which would be far better used for the benefit of Santa Clarans rather than for one NFL team owner.

We believe that the incumbent and three challengers above will go the distance to protect the wallets of Santa Clarans. We ask that all city residents take this opportunity to bring real change to our City Council on November 4th.

If there are any questions we can answer, about who we are and why we support these candidates, please use the comment or contact links. A volunteer will respond as soon as possible.

Thanks for visiting us!


- Bill Bailey, Treasurer