NFL asks 49ers, Raiders to explore sharing a new stadium

Exit 117 · Jan 25, 2009

http://www.mercurynews.com/southbayfootball/ci_11542007

49ers, Raiders in one Santa Clara stadium? For NFL, it might make sense

By Mike Swift

The NFL is urging the 49ers to explore sharing a new stadium with their cross-bay neighbors, the Raiders, hoping the Bay Area could follow the lead of the New York Giants and the New York Jets, who have joined forces to privately finance the most expensive stadium in U.S. sports history.

The owners of the Giants and Jets say they, too, believe joining forces may be the best hope for the Bay Area's two teams to build a new stadium, especially in such dire economic times. The $1.6 billion Jets-Giants stadium in New Jersey will use new video technology to broadcast each team's colors and logo throughout the stadium for home games ? allowing two rival franchises with different histories and fan bases to feel at home.

The 49ers have not begun formal discussions with the Raiders, but the team plans to expand the scope of its environmental review in Santa Clara for a stadium that could accommodate two teams playing at least 20 games a year.

"The NFL has encouraged us to explore the possibility of a two-team facility to address the economics" of building a new stadium, Jed York, the 49ers president, said in an interview with the Mercury News last week.

York cautioned that the teams are nowhere near a decision to share a stadium, but added, "I think it's important you look at all of your options. If that's a possibility, that's certainly something we'll explore."

Raiders and the 49ers in recent weeks asking the Bay Area teams, who play in two of the oldest stadiums in the league, to consider a joint project, said Greg Aiello, vice president of public relations for the NFL.

"We definitely see it as a possibility that is worth exploring, and that's what we're encouraging them to do," Aiello said. "It's a matter of trying to find a solution for a very challenging situation. Building a stadium today is more challenging than ever, and this could be a way to address the challenges ? the economic challenges, the financing challenges."

'Economic sense'

The NFL has been impressed by the success of the privately financed joint stadium effort in New Jersey, where the influential owners of the Giants and the Jets both told the Mercury News that a version of their partnership could be the Bay Area's best chance to finance a new stadium.

"It just makes much more economic sense for two teams to be in one building, if you can get through, well, we call it the 'blue' and the 'green' issues," said Giants Chief Executive John Mara, using the Giants' and Jets' team colors to stand for the struggle to make one stadium a true home for two teams. "Out there, it would be the 'black and silver' and the 'crimson' issues."

Having two teams greatly enhances the revenue a stadium could generate, including much greater advertising revenue, greater value for the sale of the stadium's name, and the fact each team could sell permanent seat licenses to its own fans. The only significant added construction cost for the Giants and Jets was adding a second home locker room.

The Bay Area and New York share two large hurdles to a stadium deal ? expensive labor, and taxpayers' extreme reluctance to bankroll stadium projects. Given that fact, Jets owner Woody Johnson said a two-team stadium might be the only way a modern NFL stadium can get built.

The NFL provided an unprecedented $300 million in financing to the Jets-Giants stadium, financing that Johnson said other owners were more willing to provide because the stadium risk was shared by two teams.

"You've got to have two teams to get it done," Johnson said. "It's not doable today ? particularly without public financing, at this level of construction ? as a single entity."

Huge cost

To some denizens of the Raiders' "Black Hole," or the 49ers' football cognoscenti, the prospect of sharing a single Bay Area stadium might be almost unthinkable. But not to the NFL's 32 owners, who are acutely aware of the staggering cost of a new state-of-the art venue.

The Dallas Cowboys' new stadium, which will open next year, will cost about $1.3 billion. The 49ers have estimated a new stadium project in Santa Clara would cost about $916 million. And while the economic slowdown may slash construction costs, the economy and the paralyzed bond markets have also made financing giant stadium projects much more difficult ? at least for now.

Skeptics also say the 49ers' 27-year-old York and the Raiders' mercurial owner, 79-year-old Al Davis, could never get to the stadium altar ? just as the rowdy "Raider Nation" could never share home turf with the 49ers' urban sophisticates.

But York said he wanted to dispel the perception that he and Davis would be an NFL "odd-couple" who could not work together on a new stadium.

"I have a lot of respect for Mr. Davis," York said. "He was one of the key people who helped my grandfather buy the 49ers back in the late '70s. We have a good business relationship. "... It's not like what is at least being portrayed by some media that we couldn't work together, and that we could never work together. But does that mean you're going to move forward and build a stadium together? That's just not where we are right now."

For now, the only talks the 49ers have had with the Raiders have been informal discussions at league owners' meetings, York said.

'Shared respect'

The stadium environmental impact study under way in Santa Clara is for one team only, but the site is equally distant from San Francisco and Oakland, with rail links to both sides of the bay. The 49ers are asking the city of Santa Clara for a $136 million investment, most of which would come from city redevelopment money. Having an NFL game every autumn Sunday might prompt more neighborhood resistance in Santa Clara, where voters could go to the polls in November to weigh in on the project.

A top Raiders official declined to comment on the possibility of a shared stadium but also said the two Bay Area teams have a good relationship.

"There seems to be a perception, fostered in large part by the media, that the 49ers and the Raiders have an adversarial business relationship and that perception is wrong," said Amy Trask, the Raiders chief executive. "We enjoy working on league business matters with the 49ers and our two organizations have a shared respect for one another."

The two New York owners, who meshed conflicting organizational styles and different fan cultures, said they see no reason why the two Bay Area teams could not build a joint stadium.

"I think it is possible," said Mara, a highly regarded NFL figure whose family is the third-generation co-owner of last year's Super Bowl champion, of a Davis-York partnership. "If they would just view it as a business deal, and what's the best possible deal you can make in the best interest of your franchise, I think forming a partnership like that would be the best thing."

Others say the Bay Area could never build a pair of billion-dollar stadiums when the New York metro area, in better economic times, couldn't get it done. In addition, California taxpayers have proved extremely reluctant to bankroll pro stadiums.

"It's unreasonable to think that each of these individual franchises would be able to invest the billion dollars necessary to build a new stadium alone," said Carl Goldberg, chairman of the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority, which owns the land under the new Jets-Giants stadium. "The whole thing seems to be a horrible waste. Let's not forget that they only play 10 games per year per franchise. Doesn't it make more sense to build a better facility, with better fan appeal and a better fan experience, for both teams?"
Click to expand...

SteelCurtain96 · Jan 25, 2009

Keyword I noticed in there....how the Jets and Giants are sharing the MOST EXPENSIVE STADIUM IN U.S. SPORTS HISTORY!!!

NFL asks 49ers, Raiders to explore sharing a new stadium

Exit 117 Active Member

SteelCurtain96 Active Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches

NFL asks 49ers, Raiders to explore sharing a new stadium

Exit 117 Active Member

SteelCurtain96 Active Member

Share This Page