The 49ers' Stadium Subsidy: "A contract is a contract."

Dear Santa Clarans,


Cedar Fair is demanding that their lease for the Great America theme park be renegotiated, as you've heard. Regardless of the merits of that action, it's worth focusing on the response of Mayor Patricia Mahan: "No. We have a contract. A contract is a contract."

Santa Clara Plays Fair would like to remind Mayor Mahan and the other four elected "Stadium Boosters" on our City Council that a Guiding Principle is a Guiding Principle:

"7. Great America Theme Park/Cedar Fair must agree to and cooperate with any proposed stadium project sited on existing City-owned lands leased or committed to them."

(Agenda Item 5D.1, 1/9/2007)

Note, however, that Cedar Fair puts more Fixed Ground Rent into our City's General Fund than the San Francisco 49ers ever will. Simply compare the $5,300,000 Great America fixed lease payment with the most that the 49ers will ever pay us, $1.5M. Cedar Fair is entitled to be a bit exasperated with the Council's "Stadium Boosters."

Not only that, the City Council got the news this last Tuesday evening: The city's worsening deficit makes it imperative that we protect our General Fund dollars wherever we can.

But subsidizing the San Francisco 49ers causes even worse General Fund losses than we have now - and Cedar Fair, which gets NO subsidy at all from our city while paying us far more, has just drawn a bold red line under that fact.

Regardless of the Cedar Fair action: To protect Santa Clara's General Fund on June 8th, Santa Clara Plays Fair urges you to VOTE NO ON MEASURE J.



Thanks for all of your support,
Bill Bailey, Treasurer

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Councilmembers Kennedy & McLeod: 49ers stadium is not a good deal for Santa Clara

Dear Santa Clarans,


Please visit the San Jose Mercury News for a well-informed statement of why a subsidy for a 49ers stadium is a really bad deal for Santa Clara:

http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_14831892

Councilmembers Kennedy and McLeod, of course, are more than qualified to speak to the issue. For three years, while other members of City Council were content with mere boosterism, Kennedy and McLeod were asking the tough questions. The answers to those questions should be enough to make every voting Santa Claran question the very sanity of the $444,000,000 stadium subsidy:

"The most damaging hit is to the city's general fund, which pays for services to residents. The staff report shows that the stadium deal will result in a net $67 million loss to our general fund. Money that should flow into it from the Redevelopment Agency will be redirected to the stadium. And yes, that loss includes all of the rents, projected taxes and other income that the city will receive from the stadium."

[Emphasis mine.]

The broken link in the article is easily fixed:

http://santaclaraca.gov/ftp/csc/pdf/49ers-Term-Sheet-Presentation.pdf

See especially slide #48 - contrary to what the "stadium boosters" are now claiming, that $67,000,000 ripoff of our city's General Fund is REAL.

We urge all Santa Clarans: Please - let two responsible elected officials tell the real story on the stadium subsidy. Then write the Letters Editor at the San Jose Mercury News, and tell them you appreciate Councilmembers Kennedy and McLeod getting the truth out there for all to see:

letters@mercurynews.com
(125 words or less, and please include your address and telephone, which will not be published. Please don't CC: us; your letters to the Mercury News Editors should be original material.)

Great backup to this opinion piece: Please consult "Ten Top Reasons to vote NO on Measure J."



Thanks for all of your support,

Bill Bailey, Treasurer

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The 49ers' Stadium Subsidy: The word is out - VOTE NO ON J!

Dear Santa Clarans,


You've been very generous in your support of Santa Clara Plays Fair. We've used your contributions to reach out to as many of our neighbors as we can. Also, many of the folks who've donated are also giving their time to walk precincts - and meet even more Santa Clarans.

We're sharing the rest of the story on the massive 49ers stadium subsidy,too.

Not only about the $444M itself.

Our walkers are getting the word out about the $67M General Fund ripoff, too.

Will you join us? And will you speak out? Please contact us anytime and let us know how you'd like to get the REAL Facts out to more Santa Clarans.


Thanks again for all of your support,
William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer

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The 49ers' Stadium Subsidy: Skin in the Game

Dear Santa Clarans,


Santa Clara Plays Fair filed its campaign finance statement this afternoon.

In that mere nine pages, you will find $1,908 in cash contributions from Santa Clara residents - people who live here**.

In the 49ers' "Astroturf" group's same statement, you will find a mere $35 from Santa Clara residents.

...and in those 44 pages, you will find OVER A MILLION DOLLARS coming from the San Francisco 49ers.

If you're looking at a mailbox full of the 49ers' slick brochures - making completely unsustainable promises and trumpeting misleading numbers - the above campaign finance statement from the 49ers Astroturf group pretty much explains that. The cool million is designed only to fool Santa Clarans into giving the team $114,000,000 up front and raising $330,000,000 more for them.

And after we do that: Our General Fund WILL LOSE $67,000,000, as well.

We urge Santa Clarans: Please don't be fooled. The massive stadium subsidy from Santa Clarans buys almost nothing for Santa Clara. It rewards only the San Francisco 49ers.

Anyway, thank you, Santa Clarans, for all of your support.

You've got skin in the game.

On June 8th, please vote NO ON Measure J - It's NO JOKE.


Best regards,
Bill Bailey, Treasurer

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** Out of a total of $1,928, we received a single $20 bill from a San Franciscan.

The 49ers' Stadium Subsidy: Santa Clarans, Please VOTE NO ON J!

Dear Santa Clarans,


If you visited the main webpage, you know it's official as of this morning: The Registrar of Voters has given us a letter for the 49ers' Stadium Subsidy Measure which will appear on our ballots on June 8th.

That giveaway is Measure "J," but we promise you, it's "No Joke!"

It's deadly serious, in fact. Tucked away in its bland, feel-good, "not-a-single-dollar-sign" language is a scheme to:

• Hand the San Francisco 49ers $114,000,000 upfront,
• Raise $330,000,000 more for them, and
• Lose $67,000,000 out of our City's General Fund.

Unfortunately, this is a ballot measure bought-and-paid-for by the San Francisco 49ers themselves, and it's built on myth-making. Let's debunk those myths by adding a few dollar signs:

SAY NO TO THE 49ERS SUBSIDY!

If you have any questions about the real numbers behind Measure J - the numbers that the San Francisco 49ers are terrified you'll find - please contact us anytime, and we'll prove them with the City's OWN data and reports.

VOTE NO ON "J"une the 8th - Protect our City and its General Fund!



Thank you for all of your support,

William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,
Santa Clara Plays Fair

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49ers PR Campaign Hides the True Stadium Costs

Dear Santa Clarans,


In a June 3, 2009 interview on Chronicle Live, "49ers' President Jed York broke down the financial details of the team's proposed stadium deal with the City of Santa Clara," and acknowledged the true stadium construction costs:























The $937 million stadium price tag includes $444 million from Santa Clara and its agencies as follows:

• $114 million as a direct subsidy from Santa Clara (12%),
• $330 million from Santa Clara's joint powers agency, the Stadium Authority (35%).
  

But since Jed York's interview, the 49ers PR campaign has lumped the $330 million from Santa Clara's Stadium Authority in with the team's contribution to inflate the team share to $823 million (88%). This misleading information has been mailed into our homes, appears on a 49ers stadium booster's website, and unfortunately has been reproduced in newspaper articles. In Jed York's online letter to 49ers fans, he reduces Santa Clara's share even further, from $444 million to only $79 million.

The $330 million from Santa Clara's Stadium Authority is not mentioned in either the 49ers stadium ballot initiative or in the text of the Term Sheet. Santa Clara's city council agenda reports and Term Sheet Exhibit 14 list the details of Santa Clara's $444 million contribution to the stadium.

Santa Clarans should be provided with complete and correct information about all of the stadium construction and operational costs.

Voters in Santa Clara have the right to know how much debt our city will incur, so we can make an informed decision without being misled about the total cost of a stadium to our city.


Submitted by Chris Koltermann,
Member of the Board, Santa Clara Plays Fair

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References:
1) The June 3, 2009 Chronicle Live interview of Jed York:
http://www.csnbayarea.com/pages/landing?blockID=57145

2) The Term Sheet, Exhibit 14, and City Presentation June 2, 2009:
http://santaclaraca.gov/ftp/csc/pdf/49ers-20090601-Exhibit-14.pdf
http://santaclaraca.gov/ftp/csc/pdf/49ers-20090601-term-sheet.pdf
http://santaclaraca.gov/ftp/csc/pdf/49ers-Term-Sheet-Presentation.pdf

3) The stadium ballot question and initiative:
http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/cache/2/ydxjb32taot0c245wxk2xpyj/15490702062010015454400.PDF

49ers Stadium Front Group Files Financials - Just Under the Wire

Dear Santa Clarans,


Looks like the 49ers "front" group is finally stepping out from behind the curtain. They managed to rush their Campaign Statement, or Form 460, into the City Clerk's office right under the 5:00 deadline yesterday afternoon.

There were no surprises here: For the year ended December 31, 2009, this group took in nearly *** $364,000 *** in monetary and non-monetary contributions...

...and a mere $645 of that actually came from Santa Clara residents.

So, who's at the helm? From the group's Statement of Organization, only Dr. John York himself, his VP of Communications - and a lawyer from Burlingame.

Not one single Santa Claran.

Santa Clarans, when those slick ads start pouring in to your mailboxes these next fews months, please make no mistake: They're not coming from other Santa Clarans.



Thanks for all of your support,
William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer

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Links to the two reports above:

http://www.netfile.com/agency/csc/

• 49ers Front Group, Financial Campaign Statement (~800kB)
• 49ers Front Group, Statement of Organization (~170kB)