Post by Southern Pirate on Jul 12, 2009 9:58:04 GMT -7
Purdy: Are the 49ers making S.F. jealous?
By Mark Purdy
What a naive chump I can be.
Over the past few years, I truly thought that San Francisco was losing its vicious jealousy of the South Bay and Silicon Valley.
Hard drive envy, I call it.
(I used to call it Wozniak envy, until the guy started doing the tango on national television.)
You would think that as residents of the Bay Area's second-largest city, San Franciscans would realize the South Bay is no hick outpost or threat to civilization, just a vital part of Northern California's diverse metropolitan region. Right?
Wrong. Ever since the 49ers decided to cast their fate with Santa Clara, the hard drive envy has returned. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom still sounds completely baffled about why the NFL team would reject his city's fabulous plan for a new 49ers stadium to be built on a former toxic waste site that is almost impossible to reach from the nearest freeway.
"They continue to find reasons why our stadium proposal doesn't work," Newsom whined last week on Comcast SportsNet. And that's just what the man says in public.
In private, ever since the 49ers signed their term sheet with Santa Clara last month, Newsom has been spinning local media members to portray the situation this way: The San Francisco stadium proposal was superior to Santa Clara's but much more complicated because it involved a massive redevelopment project at Hunters Point, the former U.S. Navy shipyard north of Candlestick Park.
Therefore, 49ers owner John York and his son, Jed, could not get their arms around all of the San Francisco project's intricate details. Therefore, the Yorks chose the less dynamic and much-easier-to-comprehend option in Santa Clara.
Honest. That is the spin. And many people are clueless enough to believe it.
The 49ers clearly have not been big winners on the field under the Yorks. But as businesspeople, they are no imbeciles. And they have grown savvy about local politics, as well.
Over the past two years, John and Jed York have held 40 or 50 neighborhood "teas" or "block meetings" throughout Santa Clara, going street to street to listen to and answer questions about the stadium plan. The Yorks probably will do 40 or 50 more such visits before the city's voters decide whether to support the proposal next year.
Any resident of the South Bay knows why the Yorks made Santa Clara their first choice: The site is a much better location for a football stadium, both in terms of geography and the marketplace. Plus, the city government and residents are far more sensible and less self-absorbed than the folks in San Francisco.
Over the years, that is one thing I have discovered about San Francisco folks: They are always stunned to learn that their city is no longer the only one that matters in the Bay Area.
For instance?
They are surprised to learn how much public transit access is available to the Santa Clara stadium site — with VTA light rail and ACE commuter trains — and how the infrastructure for reasonably easy freeway access already exists.
They are surprised to learn that in the early 1980s Santa Clara residents passed a ballot issue to buy the Great America theme park for the city, which pretty much shoots down the argument that the city would never take the major leap of faith it will require to pass a stadium election.
They are even surprised to learn that the 49ers have been essentially Santa Clara residents since 1988, when the practice facility was constructed there. The team spends 355 days a year in the South Bay and only 10 days in San Francisco — for eight regular-season games and two exhibitions. The head coach lives in Los Gatos, as does the quarterback. Most of the players couldn't find San Francisco City Hall without a GPS device.
To tell you the truth, Newsom blew a great opportunity. When he learned that the 49ers were so committed to Santa Clara, he should have called Jed York into an "emergency meeting" and invited the media to camp outside the door. After a while, Newsom could have emerged to declare a terrific outcome: He had cut a hard bargain with the 49ers to make sure that, even with the team moving south, the team would still have its "San Francisco" brand and the citizens of his city would not have to pay a dime for a new stadium because Santa Clara was doing all of the heavy lifting.
Instead, Newsom just looks silly when he says the 49ers might no longer be worthy of using the "San Francisco" name if the team moves — although as a candidate for governor, he appears to have finally discovered that there are more voters in Santa Clara County than in San Francisco. In that television appearance last week, Newsom's previously feisty tone on the stadium topic had mellowed noticeably.
Kevin Moore, a Santa Clara city council member who is a stadium booster, also noticed it.
"If you listened to him during that TV appearance, he said he was envious of Santa Clara," Moore said. "It's good to have Gavin acknowledge that he loves Santa Clara and that he knows it's a great site."
In fact, the new Newsom spin is that he wants to "avoid being used as leverage" by the 49ers to extract better terms from Santa Clara. For emphasis, Newsom later reiterated: "I don't want to be used as a pawn."
Anyone else laughing out loud? Until recently, that was exactly the objection cited by many anti-stadium folks in Santa Clara — that their little city was being used as a pawn to get a better deal out of mighty San Francisco.
Wow, has the coin flipped. Because in that interview, Newsom also said this about his city: "We're just trying to get in a position to be a backup site, which I think we are."
Yup. Hard drive envy. At its finest.
Contact Mark Purdy at mpurdy@mercurynews.com
www.mercurynews.com/49ersheadlines/ci_12819028?nclick_check=1
By Mark Purdy
What a naive chump I can be.
Over the past few years, I truly thought that San Francisco was losing its vicious jealousy of the South Bay and Silicon Valley.
Hard drive envy, I call it.
(I used to call it Wozniak envy, until the guy started doing the tango on national television.)
You would think that as residents of the Bay Area's second-largest city, San Franciscans would realize the South Bay is no hick outpost or threat to civilization, just a vital part of Northern California's diverse metropolitan region. Right?
Wrong. Ever since the 49ers decided to cast their fate with Santa Clara, the hard drive envy has returned. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom still sounds completely baffled about why the NFL team would reject his city's fabulous plan for a new 49ers stadium to be built on a former toxic waste site that is almost impossible to reach from the nearest freeway.
"They continue to find reasons why our stadium proposal doesn't work," Newsom whined last week on Comcast SportsNet. And that's just what the man says in public.
In private, ever since the 49ers signed their term sheet with Santa Clara last month, Newsom has been spinning local media members to portray the situation this way: The San Francisco stadium proposal was superior to Santa Clara's but much more complicated because it involved a massive redevelopment project at Hunters Point, the former U.S. Navy shipyard north of Candlestick Park.
Therefore, 49ers owner John York and his son, Jed, could not get their arms around all of the San Francisco project's intricate details. Therefore, the Yorks chose the less dynamic and much-easier-to-comprehend option in Santa Clara.
Honest. That is the spin. And many people are clueless enough to believe it.
The 49ers clearly have not been big winners on the field under the Yorks. But as businesspeople, they are no imbeciles. And they have grown savvy about local politics, as well.
Over the past two years, John and Jed York have held 40 or 50 neighborhood "teas" or "block meetings" throughout Santa Clara, going street to street to listen to and answer questions about the stadium plan. The Yorks probably will do 40 or 50 more such visits before the city's voters decide whether to support the proposal next year.
Any resident of the South Bay knows why the Yorks made Santa Clara their first choice: The site is a much better location for a football stadium, both in terms of geography and the marketplace. Plus, the city government and residents are far more sensible and less self-absorbed than the folks in San Francisco.
Over the years, that is one thing I have discovered about San Francisco folks: They are always stunned to learn that their city is no longer the only one that matters in the Bay Area.
For instance?
They are surprised to learn how much public transit access is available to the Santa Clara stadium site — with VTA light rail and ACE commuter trains — and how the infrastructure for reasonably easy freeway access already exists.
They are surprised to learn that in the early 1980s Santa Clara residents passed a ballot issue to buy the Great America theme park for the city, which pretty much shoots down the argument that the city would never take the major leap of faith it will require to pass a stadium election.
They are even surprised to learn that the 49ers have been essentially Santa Clara residents since 1988, when the practice facility was constructed there. The team spends 355 days a year in the South Bay and only 10 days in San Francisco — for eight regular-season games and two exhibitions. The head coach lives in Los Gatos, as does the quarterback. Most of the players couldn't find San Francisco City Hall without a GPS device.
To tell you the truth, Newsom blew a great opportunity. When he learned that the 49ers were so committed to Santa Clara, he should have called Jed York into an "emergency meeting" and invited the media to camp outside the door. After a while, Newsom could have emerged to declare a terrific outcome: He had cut a hard bargain with the 49ers to make sure that, even with the team moving south, the team would still have its "San Francisco" brand and the citizens of his city would not have to pay a dime for a new stadium because Santa Clara was doing all of the heavy lifting.
Instead, Newsom just looks silly when he says the 49ers might no longer be worthy of using the "San Francisco" name if the team moves — although as a candidate for governor, he appears to have finally discovered that there are more voters in Santa Clara County than in San Francisco. In that television appearance last week, Newsom's previously feisty tone on the stadium topic had mellowed noticeably.
Kevin Moore, a Santa Clara city council member who is a stadium booster, also noticed it.
"If you listened to him during that TV appearance, he said he was envious of Santa Clara," Moore said. "It's good to have Gavin acknowledge that he loves Santa Clara and that he knows it's a great site."
In fact, the new Newsom spin is that he wants to "avoid being used as leverage" by the 49ers to extract better terms from Santa Clara. For emphasis, Newsom later reiterated: "I don't want to be used as a pawn."
Anyone else laughing out loud? Until recently, that was exactly the objection cited by many anti-stadium folks in Santa Clara — that their little city was being used as a pawn to get a better deal out of mighty San Francisco.
Wow, has the coin flipped. Because in that interview, Newsom also said this about his city: "We're just trying to get in a position to be a backup site, which I think we are."
Yup. Hard drive envy. At its finest.
Contact Mark Purdy at mpurdy@mercurynews.com
www.mercurynews.com/49ersheadlines/ci_12819028?nclick_check=1