Niners discuss move to Santa Clara
By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer
July 18, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The 49ers would consider moving to Santa Clara if plans for a new San Francisco stadium fall through, team and city officials said Tuesday.

"If for whatever reason things don't work out in San Francisco, we need to have a backup," said Lisa Lang, vice president of communications for the 49ers.

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Team vice president and chief financial officer Larry MacNeil has met twice with Santa Clara city officials in the past month to discuss the option of building a stadium in the parking lot of the Great America amusement park, said Ron Garratt, Santa Clara's assistant city manager.

The 49ers on Monday unveiled an updated design plan for a new stadium at Candlestick Point.

Candlestick Point remains the 49ers "absolute top choice," Lang said. "We really do feel it's a spectacular site."

But the team has been "very up front" with the city of San Francisco that "it was very important we build a new stadium," she said.

Plans to replace the 46-year-old stadium at Candlestick Point have been under consideration since 1997, when city voters authorized a $100 million bond to help pay for the project.

The team hopes to finance the building of the new San Francisco stadium, estimated to cost between $600 million and $800 million, entirely through private funding.

But acquisition of that funding depends on city approval of a residential, entertainment, and retail complex on vacant land adjacent to the stadium, according to team officials.


I doubt they would change the name, but this is intriguing. It seems like they are being pretty honest and extremely cooperative. They aren't like the Cardinals, Chiefs and Vikings, who have either forced the public to build them a stadium or are relying on the public to build them a new facility.

silly.

How's it silly? They have to build a new stadium since they are currently stuck in a 46 year old baseball/football stadium. With this plan they'd actually be moving to a more populated part of the same media market they are currently in.

Only a small % of 49er fans actually live in SF. It's why they get so much resistance everytime they try to get a new stadium. The fan base is spread all over the Bay Area. Santa Clara is a suburb of San Jose, the area's biggest city. They'd actually be moving to the same city all thier operations are in including the practice facility

Sounds better than the Oklahoma City Supersonics---fuck Howard Schultz. Give him a mocha frappachino enema--venti.

let me rephrase. The Santa Clara 49ers sounds silly. Please tell me more about the area I lived in recently. Ironically, San Jose is basically a suburb of San Francisco.

Huh? I thought, if anything, that the NOOCH was just going to become the OCH.

Here is the article on this news item

OKLAHOMA CITY - Mayor Mick Cornett cautioned Tuesday that the purchase of the Seattle SuperSonics by an Oklahoma City businessman does not necessarily mean that the NBA franchise will relocate to the city.

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"I think it's presumptuous to assume that Clay Bennett and his ownership group won't own that Seattle team for a long, long time in Seattle or somewhere else. It's presumptuous to assume they're going to move that franchise to Oklahoma City," Cornett said. "I understand that people are going to say that seems to be a likely scenario, but that's just speculation."

Bennett was the leader of a group that sought to buy a minority stake in the New Orleans Hornets, who temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina.

Upon the formation of his investor group in February, Bennett said: "The bottom line is, we want a team for this market."

But on Tuesday, he had a different message. He told a Seattle news conference that he would keep the team in Seattle if an agreement could be reached for a new arena. In a news release, Bennett said he hoped the Sonics would succeed in Seattle for "decades to come."

"Owning an NBA franchise and a world-class facility in this market is a good place to be," Bennett said. "That said, as you know, I certainly hope that in time, Oklahoma City gets a team, and I think we will."

Bennett said the new ownership group has a "12-month commitment" to Seattle, in which it will attempt to negotiate for a new arena. He said the group was "sincere" but would evaluate its other options if an agreement for a new arena wasn't reached in that time frame.

"I think everything's on the table after that year, and if we run out of all our options, I'd love to have the team in Oklahoma City," Bennett said.

"Certainly Oklahoma has become clearly a viable NBA market."

Bennett, the president of Oklahoma City investment firm Dorchester Capital, was vital to the city's effort to bring the Hornets to the city. He led a group of investors who provided one-third of a $10 million promise to the Hornets if they did not meet surpass their revenue from 2004-05 by at least 5 percent last season.

Instead, the Hornets easily exceeded their revenue benchmark, and the city will share some of the profits.

"Clay is smart. He's got the means to make things happen, he's got good connections, he's trustworthy," Cornett said. "I have high expectations of him and he meets them."

Ed Evans, who was part of another group that unsuccessfully tried to purchase the Washington Nationals baseball team, said Bennett's group met earlier this year and decided that Bennett would pursue buying the Hornets while Evans looked into the Sonics.

Eventually, the group decided it wanted a controlling stake in a franchise, something Hornets owner George Shinn was unwilling to offer.

"The goal is we want to own an NBA franchise. We're not overly particular about where it is, frankly," Evans said. "It'd be great to get a team in Oklahoma City. If it's this team, wonderful. If it's not, another team at some point in time, that will be fine."

Evans said he was "pretty confident" that Oklahoma City would have an NBA franchise within the next five years.

"I don't know if it's this team, I don't know if it's the Hornets. I don't know if it's another team or an expansion franchise, but I will tell you that the way the city of Oklahoma City has responded to the Hornets in that city clearly indicates the ability of that town to support an NBA franchise," Evans said.

The Hornets, who will play 35 games in Oklahoma City this season before returning to New Orleans in 2007-08, don't anticipate the announcement having any impact on the team.

"It doesn't change anything," said Michael Thompson, the Hornets' director of corporate communications. "Our goal, our plan from day one has been to return to New Orleans."

Thompson said season-ticket sales in Oklahoma City are projected to exceed last year's totals, when the team sold out half of its 36 games at the Ford Center, and the Hornets are working on extending agreements with sponsors in the city.

"One of my concerns about what's happening today is that it will take our focus off of the Hornets and all of the great things that have been going on here, and it shouldn't," Cornett said.

The Hornets provided the city's first chance to prove it could succeed as the host of a major league franchise and now "we have proven that we are an NBA city," Cornett said.

"We need to continue to support the Hornets franchise with everything we've got," he added. "That hasn't changed."

It'll happen. They're saying all the right things now, but Bennett has already set out a time line for the new arena deal to get done (12 months), or else.....I don't have high hopes.

Pretty sad to lose a team after 40 years.

Just ask Brooklyn.

They'll still suck, no matter where they play...

you wouldn't be singing that tune 20 years ago.

John York didn't own the team 20 years ago