Chronicling the 49ers Struggle with the City
By Robert Haugh
In case you missed it, the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board recently interviewed Mayor Lisa Gillmor about how the City’s relationship with the 49ers went sour.
It’s a good read. If you’re a loyal reader of Santa Clara News Online, you would know much of this story already.
Here are some highlights from the Chronicle:
Lisa Gillmor’s take on the 49ers:
- “We learned we cannot trust the 49ers,” Gillmor said. “They are our partners, but they have exploited what we’ve tried to do in the city.”
The 49ers response. It came from Al Guido, not Jed York:
- He suggested the 49ers have been unfairly maligned in “political grandstanding” by Gillmor and other elected officials.
The Chronicle’s take:
- The November election became a bit of a referendum on the 49ers; three of the four City Council candidates considered friendliest to the team were defeated, and nearly 90 percent supported a measure growing out of the soccer-field flap that requires a public vote to sell any city-owned land used for recreation.
Some other things we learned:
- Guido would still not answer the Chronicle’s questions about whether or not the team is behind the infamous “dark money” group BluPac. (Note to Fair Political Practices Commission — that sounds like a yes.)
- The $61,000 bill that the Valley Transportation Authority spent for extra service to the U2 concert will be sent to the 49ers according to Gillmor.
Everyone is looking forward to the Harvey Rose audit, according to the Chronicle:
- An independent audit by the well-respected Harvey Rose Associates could help illuminate those questions about the stadium finances. Gillmor, who has reviewed a draft, suggested it would show violations of the 2010 ballot measure’s prohibition on the tapping of city general funds for the stadium.
It’s good to see the Chronicle weigh in on this issue as they are highly respected. Maybe greater scrutiny will lead Jed York to figure out that he has to make some real changes on the non-football side of his front office. They’ve really blown it with the Santa Clara community that once trusted them and voted overwhelmingly in support for their stadium. That’s not news. That’s something, we’ve said before.
All I can say to these comments is ‘ditto’.
I’d suggest you reverse the phrasing of your title.
It should be “The City’s Struggle with the 49ers!”
The 49ers are not struggling at all.
They are the beneficiaries of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks,
get their HQ ground lease at $26,500 per YEAR for the next 60 years,
they violate EIRs and takeover land that isn’t theirs and put in permanent
magnetometers so they can make big $$$ off of the Safeway Mile
(from Safeway and the vendors), create an ever expanding storage lot and
are purposely running the Stadium into the ground with purposeful mismanagement
and arrogant incompetence.
All the while shoving expenses over the the Stadium Authority side and not allowing
most of the details to not only be seen but taken back to city hall.
Most of the time there has also been collusion and corruption on the side of Santa Clara
Senior Staff and much of the elected officials.
The 49ers end game is probably to make the stadium such a pit that they can then buy out the Stadium Authority.
We need to have the Mayor’s back and the other 2-3 ladies that are not completely corrupted by the 49ers.
So please do reverse the order of the title. Because words matter and it is the city that is struggling not the 49ers and their bullying ways that have proven so successful in Ohio and across the US.
The purported mob ties and background explain how bullying, corruption and strong arming politicians
has allowed them to get so rich. Santa Clara’s gullible leadership of the past 10-30 years has allowed the 49ers (Yorks) to double or even triple their net worth at the expense of Santa Clarans.
Lastly, when will a City Manager FIRE the senior Santa Clara staff that keeps crossing the ethical lines that support the 49ers and NOT the City!