49ers kick off stadium plan
75,000-seat stadium cornerstone of $525 million sports comlex in Hunters Point
By Dennis J. Opatrny and Eric Brazil
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
The San Francisco 49ers unveiled plans Saturday for a 75,000-seat stadium that would be the cornerstone of a $525 million sports and entertainment complex billed as the most expensive private development in The City's history.
"It will be the best deal in the NFL for what will be the premier facility for the premier franchise in the premier city," Niners President Carmen Policy said.
The project at Candlestick Point would be the first time a professional sports franchise has incorporated a retail-entertainment complex of such magnitude.
Before groundbreaking can begin, however, the team must win voter approval June 3 of a $100 million lease-revenue bond issue and a City Charter revision permitting the ambitious proposal.
Even before the plan has been publicly announced, some organized opposition has surfaced on the premise that no public resources be expended on a private venture.
The bonds would be paid with sales and property taxes generated by the stadium mega-mall. City taxpayers, however, could be stuck with the bill if the project doesn't produce the money proponents envision.
"Getting the public to believe it's not going to cost any money out of its pockets is a fool's errand," said Assemblyman Don Perata, D-Oakland, who still carries the bruises of the deal that brought the Raiders back to Oakland.
The proposed complex would be larger than Moscone Center and would, backers say, generate 10,000 full- and part-time jobs and include a 30-screen theater, restaurants and retail stores.
Policy and Jack Davis, the political consultant who will manage the campaign, provided details of the plan to The Examiner.
Mayor Brown, who negotiated the agreement with Policy, has said he will vigorously sell the project. Brown was unavailable to comment Saturday because of the death of his long-time friend, columnist Herb Caen.
If completed on time, the team would kick off the 2000 football season in its state-of-the-art stadium, and The City would host the 2002 Super Bowl and reap a potential $300 million economic bonanza for merchants.
Much needs to be done, Policy said, for the team to convince often skeptical San Francisco voters that the project is worthy of pledging public money to help build it.
San Francisco "is almost not at risk for anything," Policy said.
City voters twice in the 1980s rejected bids by the Giants for new ballparks. Last March, however, city voters approved Pacific Bell Park at China Basin, after the Giants pledged to privately finance it. The City will spend about $26 million on streets, sidewalks and other improvements for the $262 million ballpark.
The Giants, in a campaign run by Davis, spent two years building support with a group headed by former Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg, the Rev. Cecil Williams and state Sen. Quentin Kopp.
Policy said the 49ers are prepared for a strenuous campaign. Former coach George Seifert and ex-players Roger Craig and Ronnie Lott will play prominent roles. It will feature the type of grass-roots organization that Davis has used to manage winning campaigns for the Giants, Mayor Brown and former Mayor Frank Jordan.
The Committee to Stop the Giveaway, created in 1992 by residents who wanted to stop The City from granting subsidies to the Giants, has announced it will battle the 49ers stadium with a retroactive ordinance banning any use of city finances and other resources by a privately owned stadium.
The 49ers is a gold star NFL franchise, Perata said, but "there's so much skepticism" the new stadium will be a hard sell.
Monday, Supervisor Amos Brown will submit to the Board of Supervisors a proposal to place the $100 million revenue bond issue on the June 3 ballot. It will be subject to public hearings before a final board vote. Should the project win voter approval, it would undergo environmental review and further public hearings.
The bonds would be paid off in 25 years from sales taxes expected to be generated by the mega-mall businesses and property taxes, Policy said.
After the bonds are paid off, the sales and property taxes would go directly into The City's general fund, he said, just as taxes generated by any new development.
Policy sought to minimize The City's financial exposure in the partnership, saying San Francisco's contribution would be less than other cities, such as Cleveland, that are building new stadiums.
The City's liability is capped at $100 million with the DeBartolo Corp. and its co-developer, the Mills Corp., paying any cost overruns. The DeBartolo Corp. is run by 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo.
Supervisor Brown, pastor of the Third Baptist Church, is particularly concerned with the interests of the predominantly black Bayview-Hunters Point District, where the complex will be built. Policy said the support of the mayor and Supervisor Brown may be pivotal.
The proposal says 6,500 full-time jobs would be created at the sports and retail complex, with another 2,500 part-time positions and 2,000 seasonal slots.
Davis and Policy said the jobs would help revitalize a segment of The City that has long languished in poverty.
The jobs would be created primarily in restaurants and retail shops the team hopes will act as a magnet for people within a 100-mile radius, Policy said.
He said the Mills Corp., a publicly held developer in Washington, D.C., has researched the retail-entertainment complex and found it feasible.
Policy said analysts estimate the diversified complex would ring up $400 million a year in gross sales, yet not drain business from downtown San Francisco. Bob Kahn, a Bay Area retail consultant, newsletter publisher and former Wal-Mart director, agreed. He said businesses not located downtown, such as a supermarket, would be a good fit in a Candlestick Point complex.
"I wouldn't think it'd be a conventional operation," he said, because Mills specializes in huge factory outlets. "If they came in here that might very well work."
The limiting factor appears to be parking, Hahn said.
Policy said parking would be a problem only on game days about a dozen a year. And on those days, he believes, a parking plan and effective enforcement could minimize the problem.
Policy said the team was looking for a higher line of stores than factory outlets. He mentioned such anchor tenants as The Rack, Nordstrom's discount store, and Old Navy, The Gap's more affordable shop.
Davis said the team also wants to keep the San Francisco flavor by convincing The City's classic eateries, such Scoma's, Sam's Grill and the North Beach Restaurant, to locate at the complex.
To give the mega-mall shoppers and diners an additional reason to come, there will be a 30-plex AMC movie theater and a 49ers Hall of Fame, Davis said.
He said the entire 1.4 million-square-foot complex just slightly larger than the 1.2 million square feet of the Moscone Center will include a 49ers theme.
The 75,000-seat stadium would include 185 to 200 luxury boxes and about 10,000 clubs seats, Policy said. The team contends it needs the revenue from the boxes and club seats, exclusive seats that come with other benefits such as bar service, to remain competitive in today's pro football market.
Policy said the team hasn't decided whether to sell "Personal Equity Positions," which give holders lifetime seat ownership.
Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College economist and the author of "Baseball and Billions," said a stadium generates crucial revenues for a professional sports franchise.
"It's much more profitable to have a good stadium than to have a good team," Zimbalist said Friday. The revenue generated at the stadium, including the money from luxury boxes, goes to the 49ers, which shares much of its other revenue with other teams in the NFL.
The team has not yet decided whether to acquire outright or lease the surrounding land at Candlestick Point for both mall and stadium parking. The land is held by a mixture of private owners, the state and The City.
Policy and Davis also said they would negotiate with the state for improved access to the area. Current freeway ramps are traffic nightmares on game days.
The City and team will share, 50-50, the maintenance costs estimated at up to $4.5 million a year for the new stadium. The City would own the stadium once it's paid off.
Policy said the stadium would resemble Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., home of the Carolina Panthers.
He said the team and the mayor decided to build a new stadium rather than pump city money into fixing Candlestick Park, which opened in 1960.
The team prefers to stay in San Francisco, but would look elsewhere if voters reject the stadium deal, Policy said.
"We would start looking in the Bay Area, of course," he said, "not out of choice but out of necessity."
Yorks are shopping around for stadium ideas
Nancy Gay, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, September 10, 2001
Four years after San Francisco voters approved a $100 million bond measure to help fund a new stadium, the 49ers began the 2001 season yesterday in the deteriorating eyesore known as 3Com Park.
Nonetheless, 49ers officials adamantly insist progress is being made toward unveiling a new park, and a recent nationwide tour of sparkling new facilities in Pittsburgh, Houston, Denver, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Foxboro, Mass., has given team owners Denise DeBartolo York and John York plenty to think about.
What do the Yorks want? A breathtaking setting, such as the downtown river vistas for the new baseball and football fields in Pittsburgh. Great sight lines, such as the close-to-the-action seating in Denver. Great open-ended architecture, such as the still-expanding stadium Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has cooked up in Maryland.
The objective, all told, is a state-of-the-art field that provides an interactive football encounter for the fan, and that will continue to evolve for a completely different experience year-to-year. Team president Peter Harris has gone on record saying 3Com Park could be replaced by 2005, and no one was saying anything different yesterday.
"We've met with three different architectural firms and gotten some great concepts and ideas -- they've brought us up on the learning curve so quickly," John York said excitedly before yesterday's game. "It's like, how can you tell somebody that has never tasted Cambodian food what it tastes like? It's so different that you can't tell someone until they taste it. When it comes to stadiums, now we know."
It all sounds good. So where the heck is it?
"I've said all along, we're not going to be able to build a $500 million
stadium here with the amount that has been voted on at this time," said York, who continues to mop up after the much-ballyhooed mall-stadium project was sidelined by the DeBartolo family feud. "So we need to take what has been voted on here and work with that money, along with other monies and come u with something that's good for the fans."
'Stick's moniker may be revived
Troubled 3Com won't renew name
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 28, 2001
San Francisco --
It looks like the "3Com" on 3Com Park is going the way of the dot-coms.
In what may be the most visible sign of tightening economic times, the San
Francisco 49ers said yesterday that 3Com Corp. intends to take its name off
the former Candlestick Park when its multimillion-dollar deal with the
football team expires at the end of the season.
"3Com has served formal notice they are not going to renew the name," 49ers
President Peter Harris said.
Jan Soderstrom, senior vice president for global marketing and branding for
the Santa Clara high-tech company, said the firm did indeed file notice -- but
that "we are willing to talk to them (about an extension)."
Although Harris is also leaving the door open for renegotiation, one source
familiar with the on-again, off-again talks called any hope of a renewed deal
a long shot, and thinks the company logo will be gone at season's end.
While 3Com's possible exit will have die-hard fans of the old 'Stick
rejoicing -- few of them ever adopted the corporate name -- it could also mean
the loss of $900,000 a year for a city already feeling the economic pinch
itself.
The 49ers, who control the naming rights to the city-owned stadium, say
they will try to come up with a company to replace 3Com. The city handed the
49ers the right to find a corporate sponsor for the 'Stick in 1995.
"We want to help the city as much as we can," Harris said.
Elizabeth Goldstein, general manager of San Francisco's Recreation and Park
Department, which runs the stadium, said the possibility of 3Com backing out
was news to her.
As for a new sponsor, "there may be several choices out there," Goldstein
said. If no new company comes forward, she added, the name would revert to
Candlestick Park.
Finding a new corporate sponsor may not be an easy sale -- and not just
because of the lousy economic climate. The 49ers haven't given up their
attempt to build a new home, and there are doubts that any sponsor would be
willing to put its name on an old stadium where the 49ers have just six years
left on their lease.
Still, team sources say a couple of technology companies and a financial
services firm, all in San Francisco or on the Peninsula, have expressed
serious interest. Their prospects, the sources say, look brighter than those
of 3Com, a maker of computer-networking equipment that lost $232 million in
its most recent quarter, saw sales plunge 58 percent and cut 1,000 jobs.
The 3Com accord has been a profitable one for the team and the city.
Originally negotiated under former Mayor Frank Jordan, the deal has earned the
city more than $5 million since it first took effect in September 1995.
Just how much the 49ers made from the naming rights was never made public,
although inside estimates ran as high as $4 million.
Even back in 1995, however, it was hard to find companies willing to pay to
have their name put on an aging stadium that former team owner Eddie DeBartolo
Jr. once called a "pigsty."
The 49ers finally stepped forward with the idea of buying the naming rights
themselves from the city for $900,000 a year, then reselling them to the
highest bidder. That turned out to be 3Com, at the time an up-and-coming but
little-known company eager to make a splash.
And what a splash it made -- though not exactly the one it counted on.
Fans and sportswriters hit the roof over what they saw as a corporate
sellout. The outcry -- as is so often the case in San Francisco -- got the
Board of Supervisors involved, and after a bit of debate they came up with a
compromise of sorts, rechristening the stadium "3Com Park at Candlestick Point.
"
Just last year, with great fanfare, 3Com announced that it had teamed up
with a dot-com outfit, MarchFirst, to outfit the 49ers' luxury boxes with
expensive equipment that would let fans wirelessly order food and merchandise,
as well as look up statistics from their seats.
"There were dozens of 3Com and MarchFirst minions wandering around showing
people how they could use them (the new screens)," recalled one football
insider. "This year, the screens are out, and the minions have disappeared
with all the other dot-bombs."
VOTE WITH THE FISHES: Just when San Francisco elections looked like they
couldn't get any more weird -- they got more weird.
The latest twist popped up Sunday, when a Coast Guard crew trolling the bay
scooped up eight floating ballot-box tops -- all belonging to the city's
embattled Department of Elections.
The Coast Guard promptly turned the lids over to the San Francisco Police
Department, which in turn called in the special operations unit to investigate.
It wasn't long before word of the mysterious find began spreading
throughout the city -- and with each call the suspicions of dumped ballots or
some other foul play grew.
"They found eight boxes full of ballots," one breathless former supervisor
told us on the corner of Van Ness and Geary.
But, alas, it turns out the lids blew off a row of empty precinct supply
boxes that were being cleaned and stored down at Pier 29.
The red boxes, which were last used in the November 2000 election, were
being set out in preparation for the Dec. 11 runoff for city attorney -- and
were apparently picked up by a wind gust in last week's storm, propelling them
into the bay.
All of which has Supervisor Aaron Peskin proposing a new idea just to be on
the safe side: "plastic-coated ballots that will float."
Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. They can also be heard on KGO Radio on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Phil Matier can be seen regularly on KRON-TV. Got a tip? Call them at (415) 777-8815. The
