Santa Clara Clashes with 49ers over Levi’s Stadium Management

A dispute between Santa Clara and the San Francisco 49ers erupted again this week when the city’s mayor threatened to revoke the team’s control of Levi’s Stadium.

Mayor Lisa Gillmor accused the 49ers of violating a voter-approved management agreement by spending taxpayer money to run the $1 billion venue. At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, she demanded that the team disclose financial records to auditors. Failure to comply, Gillmor said, would breach the lease agreement and prompt the city to take over facility management.

The 49ers shot back, casting Gillmor’s demands as part of a “campaign of misinformation and headline-grabbing accusations.” A statement from the team said the city doesn’t even have the authority to wrest control away.

“Contrary to these rumors and reports, the 49ers have not breached any agreements with the city. Rather, Levi’s Stadium, under 49ers management, has proven to be a tremendous economic and cultural asset not only to the city but also the entire region, while returning millions of dollars of revenue to Santa Clara.”

The 49ers’ statement added that the mayor’s allegations damage the stadium’s reputation and threaten the livelihoods of the people who work there.

“Until recently, we have remained largely silent, hoping our performance would speak for itself. The mayor fails to recognize that her unfounded accusations are harmful to her city and constituents. It is they who stand to lose revenues if promoters and event planners believe there is instability in the management of Levi’s Stadium.”

The dispute stems from a dispute over a soccer field next to the stadium, as well as the team’s attempts to negotiate a lower rent payment. Gillmor asked to review financial records before agreeing to a multimillion-dollar adjustment. The team refused, claiming the information requested is confidential and that public disclosure would cut into its bottom line.

The mayor said she believes the real reason the team won’t release the information is because it doesn’t want the city to find out how much money it’s making. At Tuesday’s council meeting, Gillmor called on the team to produce those documents within a week.

26 Comments

  1. I’m going to side with the mayor on this one.
    I just wouldn’t make the findings public, that’s for the mayor and city council and treasurer to review!

    • And suddenly you’re not an advocate of open government? Shouldn’t the public see how public dollars are spent? After all, we are talking about stadium expenditures, not national security risks.

      • If things are really as terrible as they appear it should be made public, but city officials should have first crack
        at understanding what’s going on, they created the mess.
        On the other hand if things are on the up and up, the 49ers have the contract to run the place trade secrets and all. The public can wait a month.

  2. Open the books. After the debacle that was the Superbowl, the traffic nightmare the stadium has created, and consistently low ratings of people who visit the stadium I think its time we find out how much or more pointedly how little that stadium is actually bringing in.

    Silicon Valley Comicon absolutely trounced the Superbowl when it came to generating revenue for San Jose and Santa Clara, and it was only its first year in existence. The stadium is an eyesore, most people in the county can’t even afford tickets, and it is quite possibly one of the most horrendous sites traffic-wise to put a stadium. The sooner we can find out how much of a waste of money this was the better.

  3. What?? A large sports stadium with 70,000 seats and there’s traffic around it? You’re kidding me! That’s not like any of the other sports stadiums.

    People can afford to go – I see 49er tickets starting at $26.

  4. And we are surprised that a large corporation is seeking to avoid paying its fair share? Things are only going to get worse with our new con-man president elect Trump who pays NO taxes. Files multiple bankrupcies and stiffs contractors who work for him!

    Let’s get used to the new zeitgeist! The rich skate while the rest of us pay!

    The 49er organization is scum! They tried to bamboozle the Santa Clara Unified School District several years ago by sponsoring a bogus science program at Cabrillo Junior High for a select group of English Learners! With no actual science curriculum and an inequitable implementation plan, the milquetoast. Star-struck Santa Clara Unified District administration took the bait and offered the flawed science program. Why pay taxes when you can provide crumbs to clueless school districts?

    • So Hillary who pays no taxes would have had the big corp pay her off then screw us, and that would be better somehow?

      • Actually, Hillary released her tax returns that demonstrate rhat se has in fact paid taxes so saying that she paid no taxes is false. But of course truth has no real place in trump fantasy land. Develop a skewed racist point of view and then cherry pick facts to support it or just make stuff up to support it.

        Hillary is no saint and took money for sycophant speeches to the Wall Street scummwho ruined our economy.

        But that in no way detracts from the wide and deep con man antics of Trump. He will pay $25 Million to all of the prey who participated in his Trump University scam!!! He vowed during his campaign that he would fight these charges in court! RIGHT!

        This is just one example of his chicanery. He will bankrupt our country like he has bankrupted so many of his con man endeavours!

        • Hillary and the Beast, pay taxes on what they earned as wages, as most of us do, however if you are raking in millions or billions you create a nonprofit like the Clinton foundation or Global initiative.
          It’s like a 401K for the rich, You put in all that pay off money, into a trust fund then you pay taxes on what you spend on yourself. You hire your family to run the thing all that money is tax deductible.

          You buy mansions in the name of the busines for entertaining your donors, like rich princess from the middle east and you write it off. All this is of course legal because the Washington establishment and their donors have spent millions of dollars and the better part of a century writing the tax code.
          How do you think all of people like Soros, Feinstein and Pelosi,Zuckerberg’s, Gates to name a few on the left. Some of them hide in sports like the 49’ers.

          You might try a book like Clinton Cash to find out how it’s done, The Donald is just playing by the establishment rules.

          This is terrifying to the establishment because guys like Trump want to rewrite the tax code so everyone pays the same flat tax, How much will the Clintons owe if they have to pay 28% of that 2 billion they rat holed in the last 8 years? Probably nothing.

    • > Trump who pays NO taxes.

      Half of Americans don’t pay taxes. And the overwhelming number of those who don’t pay taxes vote Democrat.

      The tax code that allows Trump to “pay no taxes” was voted on by Democrats.

      Of course, it’s not really true that Trump “pays no taxes”. The Democrat approved tax code gives him tax breaks IF he spends his money on (mostly worthless) things that Democrat politicians want people to spend money on.

      • “Half of Americans don’t pay taxes.” ??? really ? total BS repub talking point!
        what about sales, property, cigarette, gasoline, telecomm, state, local etc???

        show one citation that proves “Half of Americans don’t pay taxes.”

        • Tyler:

          Excuse me. I probably overestimated your grasp of arithmetic.

          I’ve had this discussion with people before only to learn that they didn’t grasp the concept of “net taxes”.

          If you pay a hundred dollars of income tax but get an “earned income tax credit” (i.e. free money from the government) of a hundred and fifty dollars, you ARE NOT PAYING taxes. You are getting a handout of fifty dollars.

          The overwhelming burden of taxes are paid by income taxes and property taxes. Half of Americans don’t pay these taxes. Taxes on gum and cigarettes don’t pay for the government burden on the U.S. economy. Not by a LONG shot.

          • He asked for a citation to authority. You basically cited yourself for the fact check. Check Breitbart or Hannity or something. They’ll prob’ly have something backing you up word for word. Then you can cite that. Unless they cite you first. Then you can cite each other in an endless loop.

  5. Of course Whites are racist because they are pretty much oblivious to their already entilted staus within the society. Most just don’t see it or choose not to see it but in sufuses the society so that it is taken for granted.In schools, whites go to pretty much segregated schools and get the best teachers while poor students and students of color go to schools the least qualified teachers (Teach for America) and the least resources. Whites get preferetial treatment in getting mortgages while minorities are red-lined out of White neighborhoods. Blacks get arrested and sentenced to harsh sentences for Crack use while Whites are rarely hassled for Cocaine use. Minorities are disproportionately susended from school as well as stopeed by police as they drive. These are just some example among many. Look and you will see the entiltled status of Whites in the society.

    Now we have a racist president with power to continue to protect and expand the entitled status of Whites within the society. A racist with power is truly a dangerous situation.

    • > Now we have a racist president with power to continue to protect and expand the entitled status of Whites within the society.

      Bill:

      Is there a non-racist society you would like to emigrate to? Nows you chance before Trump builds his wall and you get trapped inside.

      Make a run for it, Bill. Time’s a’wastin’.

      • Power does not cede Power without a FIGHT!
        I would rather Fight than leave and work on defeating the wimpy alt-right racists! Bring it on! Let’s have at it! I am from Chicago and relish this opportunity!

        • > Let’s have at it! I am from Chicago and relish this opportunity!

          Bill:

          You’re making this too easy. We’ll just build a segment of the Trump wall to enclose Chicago, designate Rahm Emanuel as prison warden, and dump crates of guns and ammo over the wall so you and the other inmates can perfect your fighting skills.

          I suspect that after a few months of street warfare, Chicago’s astronomical murder rate might finally begin to drop.

        • Ah yes, Chicago, where, despite the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, black men shoot and kill other black men by the dozens every week, and Sharpton, Jackson, and Emmanuel just ignore it all. .

    • Bill, as soon as Mr Obama the lame duck president leaves office we will no longer have the most racist president in modern history dividing the segregating and pitting Americans against one another. Division is what Democrats are all about, Shall I list there accompaniments?

  6. So anyway, we were talking about the City of Santa Clara being bamboozled by the SF 49er Corporation, right? Too funny! Now the taxpayers of Santa Clara will spend their money on lawyers because they voted to be stupid and all they got was a crappy NFL franchise. Everybody wins!

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