By Robert Haugh
Sometimes you know you’ve won something big when the other side goes completely nuts. That’s what happened when “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels beat Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 19. After the loss, Jericho attacked Michaels, and started calling Michaels all sorts of names. Jericho couldn’t accept the loss graciously.
We saw a similar reaction this weekend after the City of Santa Clara won a big legal victory over the 49ers on a rent issue. The 49ers wanted to pay $170 million less over 40 years. Instead, they’ll pay over $10 million more. That’s a big swing of $180 million. Ouch.
Mayor Lisa Gillmor said “We hope the 49ers will work with us, not against us, and see that we can be good partners if the team will work cooperatively with the public.”
49ers Vice President Rahul Chandhok reacted by turning into Jericho. Here’s what he said, as reported by SanJoseInside.com:
“It’s exactly this deceptive approach, her lack of transparency and fuzzy math that makes Mayor Gillmor difficult to trust,” he said. “We accept the arbitrator’s decision to increase our annual rent payment by 1 percent. It’s deceitful of the mayor to say otherwise.”
Chandhok also questioned Gillmor’s judgment in hiring a pricy PR firm and pointed out “a basic math error” in the news release, which put the yearly rent hike at $238,000.
“That is incorrect,” he said. “The annual increase is $262,000. We would hope the mayor and her personal PR consultant, Sam Singer, would have been more careful while being paid with taxpayer dollars.”
So, Chandhok pointed out that the 49ers have to pay more! (Dude, let’s hope it’s not coming out of your salary). Chandhok also attacked Singer, the city’s public relations consultant. No kidding. By the way, Singer is known as one of the best professionals in the business.
I attended the press briefing yesterday at City Hall and talked to a lot of reporters. Many of them told me that the 49ers blew it. The team turned a one-day story into a bigger deal by attacking Gillmor and Singer. And pointing out that they have to pay more money. Oops.
We’re not really surprised. The team is known for making lots of political and P.R. mistakes. The list was getting so long that we thought former 49ers coach Jim Tomsula had taken over the front office.
So, thanks to the 49ers, we don’t think this story is done. Stay tuned.
NOTE: If you have two minutes, you can watch a video the City made featuring Mayor Gillmor explaining the legal victory. It’s got good factual info, but no one is going to win an Oscar.
[…] Santa Clara Wins Big Legal Decision Over 49ers on Levi’s Stadium Rent, Team V.P. Goes Nuts […]
[…] City could also get substantial attorneys fees paid by the team like they did in the stadium rent arbitration victory. The Hanson Bridgett law firm is representing the City. They won the case rent arbitration […]
[…] is the same guy that went nuts when the team lost an arbitration in August. The 49ers tried to lower their own rent by $170 million, but failed. The City will gain $180 […]
[…] She reported that the 49ers made a $3.34 million payment to the city for their stadium rent including a “true up” payment for the big $180 million arbitration case the City won when the team tried to lower its own rent. […]
[…] We wonder if Oakland leaders saw how the City of Santa Clara beat the 49ers recently in arbitration when the team tried to reduce its own rent by $170 million. Instead the City won an extra $10 million. That’s a net swing of $180 million for the Mission City! […]
[…] the story where 49ers VP Rahul Chandhok went “full Chris Jericho” and personally attacked Mayor Lisa Gillmor. It looked like Chandhok was mad because Gillmor said […]
[…] 49ers Vice President Rahul “Jericho” Chandhok went nuts again, issuing a statement on team letterhead saying that he considers all the candidates stupid and not capable of managing a stadium, a NFL football team, or even him. Just kidding. (We hope). […]
Mayor Gillmor Promised the people of Santa Clara, that she would not give up working on the money owed to us from the 49ers. This proves what kind of a mayor she is— Santa Clara comes first .
Geez, come on Chandhok, what PR guy are you paying to write all this stuff about Lisa Gilmore? McGovern? Oh yeah, its election season! You and Tony Becker needs to make Lisa look bad and get your boy elected! Right?? Get over yerselves. Lisa is way out of your league. And the 49ers were supposed to be the class act! Hah!!
Chandhok just makes their position in this matter even look shadier. Chandhok and his 49ers got caught trying to rip off a couple hundreds millions of dollars from from Santa Clara. How could disparaging the victim make them look better. They really are stupid.
Chandhok calls the Mayor “difficult to TRUST”. SERIOUSLY, 49ers have you looked in the mirror.
Creek Trail closing, attempting to take away the soccer park from the children, not building practice fields and the violation of the curfew law. STOPPED paying your own RENT, need I say more.
After a recent survey was done to help alleviate neighborhood complaints another broken promise to the community. TRUST ??? We do not trust YOU!
Rahul Chandhok needs help with his people skills. His narrative attacking the Mayor and a communications expert is the basic 49er strategy. Look over here, Santa Clara because we do not want to acknowledge a “VICTORY” for the residents. A loss they do not want to OWN. Jed, just a suggestion, do yourself a favor fire the VP of Public Affairs &” Strategic Communications” with someone who actually understands that community building is the job.