By Robert Haugh
The Santa Clara City Council approved a Super Bowl Agreement for the 2026 game late Tuesday night.
The 49er Five approved a deal that has no financial guarantee from the team about expenses. The game is expected to cost over 6.3 million dollars in city services.
Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Vice Mayor Kelly Cox voted no.
Santa Clara News Online reported on the details of the Council action yesterday.
Now the San Francisco Chronicle has written a story that includes more information and quotes.
(Here’s a link to the story that’s not behind the Chronicle’s paywall.)
The story was written by reporters Ron Kroichick and Lance Williams, who have won awards for their coverage of the 49ers’ political and financial takeover of Santa Clara.
Here are some notable things that Gillmor said in the Chronicle story.
She told the Chronicle on Wednesday that she feels like the city is “sliding down a slippery slope.”
“I worry because the 49ers have such strong, unquestionable support on the City Council,” Gillmor said. “Even if they don’t pay us, this council will support it. They’re 100% on the 49ers’ side, and it appears city staff is also. …
“What’s missing is no financial experts are chiming in on this, no outside counsel, no financial analysts for the city. When you combine the Super Bowl costs with the World Cup costs of $35 million to $50 million, that’s a heck of a lot of money the city is putting out front with no assurance of getting repaid.”
Jain is silent
10 CPRAs returned
Jain claims he and Park never didcuss the recall.
Jain never discussed Vartan
Jain never talked about Loyalton
Jain claims he and Becker did not talk about trial.
LIE
The 49ers are worth $8.6 billion. How can they possibly guarantee that they will reimburse Santa Clara ?
Interesting, just pulled up “Host Cities with problems from World Cup Games scheduled”. Apparently this is not just a issue with Santa Clara.
Suggestion is to get a large cup of coffee before you sit down to start to learn really just how bad this is…everywhere that FIFA goes.
Just the Facts Ma’am
Thanks for Chron link. What Brian and Mayor said. We all know how much the 49ers love SC’s public safety. Big eye roll.
49ers will stick all public safety costs on City and make sure there’s major OT just because THEY WONT HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!
And Jed York will be laughing all the way to the bank while the 49er 5 once again bask in glory knowing they fulfilled their mission. Are they getting Super Bowl tickets?
Mayor Gillmor is right to focus on the finances. What seems to have gone missing is that all of the public expenditures to hold these events in Santa Clara must initially come out of the City budget. These not only include actual police and fire payroll costs, but payments to outside agencies that will assist with public safety and logistical services. So the taxpayers must front the money (Is it $35 Million, $50 Million or more?), subject to reimbursement by a nonprofit which has to date shown no ability to raise this type of money, or by one of the 49er entities. Given the history of the 49ers to go back on their promises, this does not bode well for the taxpayers.
In addition, staff has foolishly negotiated that the Stadium Authority itself will be responsible for reimbursing a good part of the City’s administrative expenses, which will, no doubt, be significant. The Mayor correctly notes that Stadium Authority revenue is a good part of the source of StadCo’s revenue stream. Thus, the City will be looking to its other public entity, the Stadium Authority when seeking reimbursement, putting it at odds with StadCo for the same revenue.
All of this risk could have been avoided by a competent team of negotiators who would have stood up to the NFL and FIFA, by simply saying NO to any other scenario than demanding payment up front.