By Robert Haugh
Scott McKibben was employed in Santa Clara — briefly.
McKibben was hired in September 2017 to be the City’s stadium manager. He left his job as the Oakland – Alameda County Coliseum CEO. Two months later, McKibben went back after the Coliseum threw more money at him.
That turned out to be a good thing for Santa Clara.
According the multiple City Hall sources, McKibben was pushing hard to get rid of the Stadium curfew to help the 49ers. But he failed.
McKibben then went back to Oakland and cut a deal with the Raiders to stay in Oakland their final season. The deal looked favorable to the team who had no options.
Last Friday, McKibben suddenly resigned from his Oakland Coliseum CEO position.
“There are some people who felt that there was a possible conflict of interest in the awarding of the naming rights deal,” McKibben said in an interview with legendary San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier.
The controversy was about an alleged commission of $50,000 McKibben got from the $1 million-a-year naming deal for the Coliseum. McKibben received the payment from Ring Central, the newly named sponsor for the Coliseum, sources told the Chronicle.
Similar to 49ers’ Mercurio and Conflict of Interests
The Coliseum authority is a public agency like our Stadium Authority. So key employees such as McKibben are subject to conflict of interest rules enforced by the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).
49ers VP Jim Mercurio also got caught by the FPPC in a similar situation.
We broke the story about how Mercurio either purchased or received stock from VenueNext. His Form 700 says he owns between $10,001 and $100,000 of the stock. VenueNext is a stadium vendor who got a major stadium contract.
After we broke the story, it was discovered that Mercurio also bought stock in Visual Labs, another stadium vendor that makes body cameras for stadium security.
We also broke the story that 49ers CEO Jed York is chair of VenueNext and may be accused of self-dealing.
Looks like the FPPC is going to be busy this year investigating Bay Area sports teams and self-dealing, and stadium managers and conflict of interests.
