We would like to believe our Mayor, City Council, City Manager and City Attorney.
They wish to fire the 49ers Stadium Management Company for failure to produce revenue for the City as they did the first few years of the contract, among other fabricated violations.
However, the City’s own actions have led to a decline in revenue from Levi’s stadium.
It was our City Council that voted two years ago to uphold a 10 p.m. weeknight curfew on productions and performances at Levi’s Stadium.
It turns out that many performers and major productions are so heavily booked they can’t perform at Levi’s on a Friday or Saturday night. On these nights, the curfew is 11 p.m.
As you may know, Ed Sheeran wanted to perform at Levi’s on a Tuesday night. His tour is the largest grossing concert tour in history, bringing in $775 million dollars. When he was told the curfew would be 10 p.m. at Levi’s Stadium, he didn’t even blink. He booked AT&T Park and sold out in four hours.
It is estimated the initial loss to the City of Santa Clara was about $1.6 million.
That is just one concert folks.
On top of that action, the City Manager discussed publicly the loss from one of the two Taylor Swift concerts — which nonetheless delivered $500,000 million to the City’s general fund and another $500,000 to the Santa Clara Stadium Authority But it is not the kind of information that should be discussed publicly if you are trying to attract new business.
However, when the word got out to the performer world that Santa Clara would hold to their curfew and possibly discuss financial results publicly, promoters who book these events began to look elsewhere and anywhere but Levi’s.
You can guess the outcome.
Revenues have declined substantially. What’s worse, promoters appear to have turned in their verdict. They aren’t looking at Levi’s Stadium to book performers.
Remember, it was the City Council, aka Stadium Authority, that voted to uphold the 10 p.m. curfew.
After shooting themselves in the foot, and their pocketbook, they had to find a fall guy.
They certainly weren’t going to blame themselves for the falling revenues and their bad decisions. They attacked the 49ers Management Company at last week’s news conference as being inept, non-professional, unethical, dishonest, and being in breach of contract.
Of course, the City had to find someone else at fault. It couldn’t be them.
So, are we talking about dozens of nights a year that would exceed the 10 p.m. curfew?
Nope. Maybe three or four nights a year.
There is more. Much more. According to trusted sources, the Santa Clara Stadium Authority has not been paying its share of the Stadium expenses for months. Their arrears are in the millions of dollars.
Therefore, the 49ers Management Company has been forced to sue them again.
This lawsuit by the 49ers joins their five other lawsuits against the City and/or SCSA.
Now you decide. Which partner would you suspect of being the problem in this partnership?
We would like to believe our elected leaders but…their performance lacks substance.
