{"id":237155,"date":"2014-09-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/looking-beyond-football\/"},"modified":"2014-09-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T07:00:00","slug":"looking-beyond-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/looking-beyond-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking beyond football"},"content":{"rendered":"

New home of the 49ers may offer\u00a0San Diego some ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joe Connor<\/p>\n

After spending 10 years failing to find a suitable site to build a new football stadium in the City of San Francisco, Larry Macneil got a letter one day in 2004 from Kevin Moore, then a city councilmember in Santa Clara. Moore had land for the San Francisco 49ers football team\u2019s executive vice president of development to consider. The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n

\"Levi\u2019s<\/a>
Levi\u2019s Stadium, the new home of the San Francisco 49ers, is bringing more than football fans to Santa Clara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While San Diego\u2019s City Council, tourism officials, hotel owners and the Chargers debate over land to expand the Convention Center and also build a new football stadium, the 49ers recently christened Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara thanks to a partnership few ever envisioned.<\/p>\n

Santa Clara, a city of 120,000 residents in Silicon Valley located 38 miles south of the 49ers\u2019 former home at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, lured the team largely because existing infrastructure was already in place to support nearly 70,000 fans coming to and from a typical football game.<\/p>\n

But to hear Moore tell it, the biggest factor was that all stakeholders \u2014 councilmembers, tourism officials, hotel owners and the team \u2014 could envision the future benefits once the stadium opened. A majority of Santa Clara taxpayers shared the same vision too, voting in 2010 to approve the lease of city property to build the stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it\u2019s done for property values is astronomical,\u201d explained Moore, now a realtor in Santa Clara that is also writing a book about his experience helping to lead the project. \u201cThat\u2019s revenue for the city. Ultimately, what it\u2019s going to create is a true downtown for Santa Clara.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years after Moore dropped off his letter at the 49ers\u2019 corporate headquarters, Santa Clara expanded its convention center, which is located next to Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not a big city but [both projects] have taken us to a bigger tier,\u201d Moore said. \u201cBefore these projects, our land across the street from the stadium had a sign on it but we couldn\u2019t get anybody to lease the property.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opening of Levi\u2019s Stadium is also spurning additional growth. For example, the Related Companies is planning to invest $2.3 billion to create a regional shopping and commercial center on the city\u2019s existing golf course nearby. The Montana Property Group, led by football hall-of-famer and former 49er Joe Montana, plans to build a luxury hotel, office and entertainment space on land north of the stadium.<\/p>\n

Macneil said the biggest challenges in San Francisco were how to make do with the limited amount of land available in such a high-density city \u2013 and also absorb the high infrastructure costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding 20 acres of land just to build the stadium was not hard,\u201d Macneil explained. \u201cWhat makes it difficult in an urban environment is really the parking. You need 140 acres just for 20,000 cars and it also has to be well-served with public transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 49ers estimated the cost just to build a new parking garage to support 20,000 cars at $600 million.<\/p>\n

Moore, who tried luring the San Francisco Giants baseball team to Santa Clara in the late 1980s, said the San Diego City Council, Chargers and tourism officials should look into lowering costs by making the most of the existing public transportation infrastructure \u2014 as well as the limited land available Downtown \u2014 by making an expanded convention literally part of the Chargersw new stadium. He cited a recent gala event held on one of the suite levels at Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know how expensive it is to put in a new bathroom or kitchen in your home, right? Why wouldn\u2019t the Convention Center utilize this brand new existing [stadium] space?\u201d Moore asked. \u201cThe enclosed bar and restaurant areas inside Levi\u2019s Stadium are a lot better than a lot of convention centers I\u2019ve seen. And they have their own kitchens and bathrooms. That would be a smart way to also help expand a convention center.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience with Petco has taught me the value of holding a meeting in the Western Metal Building or the OMNI Premier Club,\u201d said John Kratzer, president and CEO of JMI Realty that developed Petco Park and the surrounding ballpark district. \u201cThat\u2019s very exciting to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kratzer said a football stadium could be constructed on top of an expanded Convention Center for $1.4 billion.<\/p>\n

One of his company\u2019s proposed sites would be a short walk from the existing Convention Center. Such a design has never been done before. Constructing a football stadium and an expanded convention center separately would cost an additional $400 million, Kratzer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe campus style approach can work, because San Diego\u2019s greatest asset is its weather,\u201d Kratzer said. \u201cComic-Con has shown that a large convention can take over multiple facilities. I don\u2019t believe [the expansion] has to be contiguous to the existing Convention Center space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennis Wellner, founder of the architectural firm Populous that has designed more than a dozen NFL stadiums, agrees. Wellner said that the expansive restaurants, bars and lounges within enclosed club-level and suite-level stadium seating could serve multiple audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are going to be the most expensive parts of the building to design,\u201d Wellner said. \u201cYet high-end costs such as space used for premium patrons can serve dual purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

No general or enterprise funds were used by Santa Clara taxpayers to pay for Levi\u2019s Stadium and no new taxes were added either, except for a self-imposed tax by local hotels. The city\u2019s Stadium Authority borrowed $850 million from\u00a0Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and U.S. Bank for construction, with the NFL contributing $200 million. Additional funding came from redevelopment money, which has since dried up in California and created one more challenge for the Chargers.<\/p>\n

The NFL stadiums of the Arizona Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts and St. Louis Rams have used their field as a convention hall, but each of these facilities also has a roof.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I talk to the world\u2019s leading architects, no one\u2019s really done it right,\u201d Kratzer said. \u201cThe real answer is no one has ever set out to make sure it works out for the team and a convention center. Our plan optimizes space for both.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an underdog kind of guy,\u201d Moore said. \u201cWe had to think smart.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Diego should think like they\u2019re the underdog. Do something spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Note: San Diego Downtown News reached out to Chargers spokesman Mark Fabiani; Joe Terzi, CEO of San Diego Tourism and the Mayor\u2019s Office. None responded for comment on the story.<\/p>\n

\u2014Joe Connor is a freelance sports writer that has seen a game at every NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB venue.\u00a0He can be reached at joecsd@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New home of the 49ers may offer\u00a0San Diego some ideas Joe Connor After spending 10 years failing to find a suitable site to build a new football stadium in the City of San Francisco, Larry Macneil got a letter one day in 2004 from Kevin Moore, then a city councilmember in Santa Clara. Moore had […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":237156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Looking beyond football","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}