By Kathy Watanabe
Santa Clara residents deserve something very simple from our publicly owned Levi’s Stadium: transparency, accountability, and a fair return for our community. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Let me make one thing clear. This isn’t about being against the 49ers or football. Levi’s Stadium is an extraordinary asset, and I want the team and the stadium to succeed. But I want Santa Clara to succeed, too.
For years, residents have heard enormous numbers tied to Levi’s Stadium — billions in regional economic activity, hundreds of millions in projected benefits, global events, millions of visitors. But residents deserve to know something far more important: What does Santa Clara actually get?
Not the Bay Area.
Not San Francisco.
Not the NFL.
Not FIFA.
Santa Clara.
The 49ers say Levi’s Stadium has generated more than $2 billion in regional economic activity and $51.6 million in lifetime revenue for Santa Clara’s General Fund. Those are significant numbers — but they raise serious questions.
- How much revenue should Santa Clara have received under our agreements?
- How much did we actually receive?
- What expenses were deducted?
- How much money from non‑NFL events reached the General Fund?
- And can an ordinary taxpayer understand where the money went?
If the answer is “no,” then we have a problem.
That’s why Santa Clara needs a comprehensive, independent accounting of the stadium’s direct economic benefit to our city — not regional projections, not theoretical multipliers, but actual dollars reaching Santa Clara.
This is especially urgent now. We just hosted the Super Bowl and six World Cup matches. Our police officers, firefighters, public works teams, and city employees made those events possible. Before the World Cup, Santa Clara set a clear principle: these events must provide direct benefits to Santa Clara residents and Santa Clara businesses.
Now that the events are over, it’s time to measure the results.
- How much did Santa Clara spend?
- How much has been reimbursed?
- How much additional sales tax and hotel tax did we receive?
- And how much did our small businesses actually benefit?
Because I’ve heard the concerns. Many expected a windfall that never arrived. Some businesses benefited — but regional projections don’t tell us what happened to the restaurant owner on El Camino or the retailer near Franklin Mall.
So let’s ask them.
Let’s collect the data.
Let’s find out where visitors spent their money — and how much stayed here.
This conversation is bigger than Levi’s Stadium. Drive down El Camino Real and see the vacant storefronts and aging properties. Look at our long‑delayed Downtown revitalization. Plans don’t rebuild a Downtown. Investment does. And every dollar Santa Clara is entitled to matters.
That’s why stadium transparency is a neighborhood issue, a small‑business issue, a quality‑of‑life issue — and ultimately, a trust issue.
So I’m calling for four things:
- A comprehensive, independent economic‑impact analysis focused on Santa Clara’s direct benefit.
- A complete public accounting of Super Bowl and World Cup costs, reimbursements, and revenues.
- An annual, easy‑to‑understand report showing exactly how much money the stadium generated for Santa Clara.
- A serious economic‑development strategy ensuring future major events benefit Santa Clara’s small businesses.
This isn’t about factions or football loyalties. It’s about being pro‑Santa Clara. We can have a successful team, a successful stadium, and a successful city — but only with transparency, accountability, and leadership that puts residents first.
Kathy Watanabe, former Santa Clara Vice-Mayor
I will say for the record that Kathy has the texperience and understanding to set the record straight about the stadium Clearly, Ferraris and Willuams are not to trusted. Both of these two are the political Comancheros of this wlection.. . I support Kertes because I think he is more creative on thus matter, but the voters should trust David or Kathy.
I could not agree more. I supported bringing the Stadium to Santa Clara as not only do we love the team we trusted the contract was well written and would benefit the community. I am not convinced that these things are happening. Would love to see an unbiased audit to see what real benefits to the city are happening.
Thank you Kathy for writing about this
It’s imperative that Santa Clara impose a tariff on every ticket sold to every event in every price level. This would guarantee some income from every single event. I proposed this several years ago but was blocked by the council and city manager.
It’s embarrassing to have a stadium but nowhere to go before or after the game. We desperately need a downtown and I don’t understand why it hasn’t started to be built. Tear down that building on the corner of Lafayette and Homestead and let’s get shovels in the ground. Get rid of the courthouse too. I want this done now. I’m tired of waiting. We need to be more aggressive and demanding of our city leaders.
Let’s collect the data?? You mean it’s not actively being collected and these measures are NOT already in place???? Who does business with a behemoth organization like the 49ers and doesn’t have metrics in place from the get go???
This is why we see accountability taking a back seat to profitability all day every day from the White House to the school house.
Can we just get our act together as a larger city and start behaving like one???
Great idea! 👍👍👍
Great questions. Now take those numbers and do one more comparison. Take the money that the City invested in the stadium and assume that was invested in a safe bank account. Did the actual earnings from the stadium exceed what could have been earned that way (without the drama and staff/Council distractions we see in the real world)? Certainly the general fund would have done better from that type of investment.
Assume we instead spent the same amount of staff/Council time trying to optimize City operations in general. What could we have done? What opportunities were missed because of the distractions?
In addition to the actual City and Stadium Authority expenditures, any economic analysis should also include lost opportunity costs. A perfect example of this is the loss of 3 BTS concerts to Stanford Stadium which might have generated four to six million dollars in additional performance rent to the City’s General Fund. In assigning exclusive rights to FIFA for World Cup preparations (too early?), Santa Clara lost out on holding these concerts, which in the past have been very financially beneficial. The World Cup agreements negotiations did not even consider lost opportunity costs.