Stadium Authority Preview: Staff Changes 49ers Stadium Budget and Sends Them Notice of “Breach” on Prevailing Wages

By Robert Haugh

After last week’s Stadium Authority meeting, we learned that the 49ers still are not turning over documentation and gave away 20,000 tickets at a $2 million loss to the Stadium Authority.

And the 49ers/ManCo didn’t show up to answer questions about their own budget and marketing plan. It’ll be interesting to see if they show up on Wednesday.

That’s when the Stadium Authority hosts a special meeting to once again review the budget and marketing plans for Levi’s Stadium.

The SA Board will likely take action on the proposed Santa Clara Stadium Authority 2019/20 budget and Stadium operation and maintenance plan. Here are two interesting changes:

  • According to the SA staff, they’ve given the SA Board a budget that keeps net revenue to the SA at $4 million. That’s what was projected until a few weeks ago when ManCo reduced it to $750,000.  And they didn’t give any explanation. So the SA Board is telling ManCo that they’re expecting an extra $3.25 million.

  • ManCo also put $929,000 in the budget for “other expenses” without any detail. The SA Board last week said they wouldn’t pay it. So the staff put in $110,000. That’s the amount spent in prior years for legitimate stuff.

The SA Board will hear a report on a Notice of Breach of Agreement and Audit of the Stadium Manager. According to a March 22 letter from Executive Director Deanna Santana, “In a telephone conversation with Stadium Manager (and 49er/ManCo exec) Jim Mercurio … it surfaced that the Stadium Manager had not complied with state law … the Stadium Manager has not been able to demonstrate compliance with proper bidding and adherence to California Prevailing Wage Statutes.”

Wow. This could be a big and developing story. We’ll be tuning in.

2 comments

  1. Only reason there’s a quest for 6,000 fans because you moved the new stadium an hour away from 75% of your fan base(with just as bad of a traffic situation)! Until there is a train service of some sort, you can expect this type of show out to be more common

  2. I don’t believe the city can go forward with Manco and have a fruitful relationship. Manco has shown to be an incompetent partner that seems to be more political than financially motivated.

    NEXT! Time for a new partner. There has to be somebody with more experience and that has a history of success to partner with. If I never see Jim Mercurio’s giant Blazer in the city council chambers again that would be a step in the right direction.

Leave a Reply