Lure of the South Bay
SANTA CLARA, FREMONT OFFER MORE THINGS SPORTS EXECS WANT
By Mike Swift from The San Jose Mercury News
Posted on Sun, Nov. 12, 2006
Tony Bennett doesn't croon about leaving his heart in Santa Clara. Tourists don't flock from around the globe to Fremont. You come to Silicon Valley to make a mark in your field of endeavor. And to make money.
So it is for two of the Bay Area's pro sports franchises, the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Athletics, who within the space of 24 hours last week told local officials that they aim to set up shop in the South Bay, the 49ers in Santa Clara and the A's in Fremont.
The South Bay is no stranger to being pitted against its neighbors to the north when it comes to pro sports owners trying to sweeten their stadium deal.
Even if Santa Clara is just a bargaining chip for the 49ers, it's a potent one. The South Bay has become an enticing lure for the pro teams of San Francisco and Oakland because of its bounty of high-tech corporations, population growth, disposable income, accessible land and transportation web.
Think of the Bay Area as a seesaw, with its fulcrum at the San Mateo Bridge. With each passing year, the South Bay's weight of wealth, people and available land tips the balance ever more in its favor.
``There are three reasons the teams are moving here,'' said Dean Munro, executive director of the San Jose Sports Authority. They can't get something done in their home city, the region's population growth is in the South Bay and so is the money, he said. ``That's not an insignificant thing.''
The NHL's expansion San Jose Sharks, for one, have been here since the early 1990s.
Moving to suburbs
The flat suburban streets of Silicon Valley may lack the cultural gravitas of San Francisco. And A's faithful from Oakland blanched at the thought of their city's team moving to the suburbs.
``The Fremont A's, the San Jose A's -- it all sounds like a Triple-A team to me,'' said Deborah Campbell Ford, a spokeswoman for Oakland Mayor-elect Ron Dellums, referring to a minor-league division.
But to explain the draw for owners like the 49ers' John York and the A's Lew Wolff, think of the ``Four P's'': People, Pocketbooks, Politics and Property.
York said last week that he and other NFL owners aren't abandoning their fans by moving to the suburbs.
``Dallas has moved from the city of Dallas to Irving, now to Arlington for their new stadium. Buffalo is in Orchard Park. The Giants used to be in the city, and the Jets. Both moved over to New Jersey,'' York said. ``I think it's just an accepted fact that our fan base is growing out, and that there are plenty of fans that are in the South Bay area. So we're not moving away from our fan base.''
In fact, both the 49ers and the A's would be moving toward that fan base.
Over the coming 25 years -- roughly the expected life spans of new stadiums -- Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties will add a combined 1 million new residents, according to population projections by the state Department of Finance, as both Santa Clara and Alameda counties sprawl toward the south. San Francisco, in contrast, is projected to lose population between now and 2030.
Proximity to a growing population is a larger consideration for the A's, because major league baseball's fans typically travel no more than 15 miles to attend a game, said Roger Noll, professor emeritus of economics at Stanford University.
Getting to the games
``Baseball, because you play 81 home games, people don't buy season tickets to baseball games if they're going to have to commute an hour each way,'' said Noll, an expert on stadium finance. ``Distance is much less important with football,'' because it's a daylong event that usually happens on a Sunday.
Silicon Valley also has the pocketbook to fill luxury boxes and premium seats, the lifeblood of stadium deals and revenue opportunities for pro sports franchises, and to animate the commercial real estate venture that would surround the new A's stadium.
Fueled by the high-tech success of corporations like Google, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Yahoo, eBay, Apple Computer and Intel, San Jose had the highest household income of any large city in America in 2005, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. Santa Clara and San Mateo now are two of California's three most-wealthy counties, with median household incomes one-third higher than San Francisco's.
Key meeting on A's
``The A's already have their sugar daddy with Cisco, and the Niners don't have their sugar daddy yet,'' Noll said.
On Tuesday, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will join Wolff and Cisco Systems Chief Executive John Chambers to unveil the A's new ``Cisco Field,'' a platform to demonstrate the company's newest technology, such as wireless devices that would allow fans to call up player stats or order food. The park is expected to seat up to 35,000, and be surrounded by a commercial wrap of retail shopping, housing and hotels that would resemble Santana Row in San Jose. Oakland doesn't appear to be putting up a fight.
But San Francisco officials aren't ready to let the 49ers head south. York envisions a new stadium across from the team's headquarters and the Great America amusement park. It would include about 150 luxury suites -- 40 percent more than the team has at Monster Park -- and about 7,500 club seats, segregated from regular fans, and typically purchased by companies or high-rollers, with special access to restaurants and other stadium amenities.
Luxury suite sales are especially important for an NFL team that plans to privately finance its stadium, as the 49ers say they plan to do.
``I don't think there's any question that this is viewed as a great opportunity by sports franchises to gain access to more corporate dollars and more corporate support. The nexus of the business community in the Bay Area has clearly moved from San Francisco to Silicon Valley,'' said Gary Fazzino, vice president for government affairs for Hewlett-Packard, who said his comments do not reflect any commitment from HP.
``Would there be more interest in purchasing luxury suites if you're five miles from your corporate headquarters rather than 30 miles from your corporate headquarters? Absolutely.''
Others are less sure, given the large fan footprint for an NFL team, whether a move to Silicon Valley would make it significantly easier for the 49ers to sell premium seats.
Fazzino, a former Palo Alto mayor, said there may be yet another reason why the 49ers' York and the A's Wolff decided to move now: Politics. Especially with the elections over, the politics of Silicon Valley are more placid than in San Francisco and Oakland.
``I think San Francisco is much more balkanized. It's a much more diverse population, with diverse interests, and a very intense political environment, more than is the case in Silicon Valley,'' he said.
To build a new stadium at Candlestick Point in San Francisco, the 49ers had to get approval to acquire 40 acres of state parkland, a difficult process that the team said would require changing two state laws.
And that's where the property comes in.
It's just easier -- and usually cheaper -- to build a stadium in a suburban location than in a city. And Silicon Valley already has a highly evolved network of freeways and transit. The Santa Clara 49ers stadium site would be served by three freeways and would be a two-minute walk from a VTA light-rail station and a 10-minute walk from ACE commuter rail.
Consider the harried Intel executive in 2012, hoping to finalize a multimillion dollar deal by entertaining a client at the Monday night 49ers game. Instead of fighting the rush hour on Highway 101 to get to San Francisco, they could walk to their suite at a Santa Clara stadium while others in Silicon Valley could catch light rail or an ACE commuter train.
As good as it gets
Tony Gonzales, a vice president with HNTB Architecture, designers of the proposed 49ers stadium, said the Santa Clara site reflects the fruition of 20 years of the valley's transportation planning.
``I must say this site sort of has it all for us,'' Gonzales said. ``The thing we like most about this site is that all of the infrastructure is here.''
That's not the case at Candlestick Point. Building a privately financed stadium supported by a subsidiary housing and retail development on the tight geography of the Peninsula would require $765 million in infrastructure improvements, including a new interchange for 101 and construction of one of the world's largest parking garages, accommodating 10,000 cars.
Because of the garage, the 49ers worry, many fans would have to forget about one football institution: Tailgating.
York, the 49ers owner, said he's not using Santa Clara as leverage, even as he plans to reopen talks with San Francisco officials this week.
Many observers, however, are not convinced. Richard D. Gray is one of them.
``Their job is to get as much money out of the municipality as they can,'' said Gray, who was a lead negotiator for the state of Connecticut in its failed bid to lure the New England Patriots to Hartford in 1999. ``And they are good businessmen; you can't blame them for that. But don't think fan loyalty has a . . . thing to do with it.''Posted on Sun, Nov. 12, 2006
Lure of the South Bay
SANTA CLARA, FREMONT OFFER MORE THINGS SPORTS EXECS WANT
By Mike Swift
Mercury News
Tony Bennett doesn't croon about leaving his heart in Santa Clara. Tourists don't flock from around the globe to Fremont. You come to Silicon Valley to make a mark in your field of endeavor. And to make money.
So it is for two of the Bay Area's pro sports franchises, the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Athletics, who within the space of 24 hours last week told local officials that they aim to set up shop in the South Bay, the 49ers in Santa Clara and the A's in Fremont.
The South Bay is no stranger to being pitted against its neighbors to the north when it comes to pro sports owners trying to sweeten their stadium deal.
Even if Santa Clara is just a bargaining chip for the 49ers, it's a potent one. The South Bay has become an enticing lure for the pro teams of San Francisco and Oakland because of its bounty of high-tech corporations, population growth, disposable income, accessible land and transportation web.
Think of the Bay Area as a seesaw, with its fulcrum at the San Mateo Bridge. With each passing year, the South Bay's weight of wealth, people and available land tips the balance ever more in its favor.
``There are three reasons the teams are moving here,'' said Dean Munro, executive director of the San Jose Sports Authority. They can't get something done in their home city, the region's population growth is in the South Bay and so is the money, he said. ``That's not an insignificant thing.''
The NHL's expansion San Jose Sharks, for one, have been here since the early 1990s.
Moving to suburbs
The flat suburban streets of Silicon Valley may lack the cultural gravitas of San Francisco. And A's faithful from Oakland blanched at the thought of their city's team moving to the suburbs.
``The Fremont A's, the San Jose A's -- it all sounds like a Triple-A team to me,'' said Deborah Campbell Ford, a spokeswoman for Oakland Mayor-elect Ron Dellums, referring to a minor-league division.
But to explain the draw for owners like the 49ers' John York and the A's Lew Wolff, think of the ``Four P's'': People, Pocketbooks, Politics and Property.
York said last week that he and other NFL owners aren't abandoning their fans by moving to the suburbs.
``Dallas has moved from the city of Dallas to Irving, now to Arlington for their new stadium. Buffalo is in Orchard Park. The Giants used to be in the city, and the Jets. Both moved over to New Jersey,'' York said. ``I think it's just an accepted fact that our fan base is growing out, and that there are plenty of fans that are in the South Bay area. So we're not moving away from our fan base.''
In fact, both the 49ers and the A's would be moving toward that fan base.
Over the coming 25 years -- roughly the expected life spans of new stadiums -- Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties will add a combined 1 million new residents, according to population projections by the state Department of Finance, as both Santa Clara and Alameda counties sprawl toward the south. San Francisco, in contrast, is projected to lose population between now and 2030.
Proximity to a growing population is a larger consideration for the A's, because major league baseball's fans typically travel no more than 15 miles to attend a game, said Roger Noll, professor emeritus of economics at Stanford University.
Getting to the games
``Baseball, because you play 81 home games, people don't buy season tickets to baseball games if they're going to have to commute an hour each way,'' said Noll, an expert on stadium finance. ``Distance is much less important with football,'' because it's a daylong event that usually happens on a Sunday.
Silicon Valley also has the pocketbook to fill luxury boxes and premium seats, the lifeblood of stadium deals and revenue opportunities for pro sports franchises, and to animate the commercial real estate venture that would surround the new A's stadium.
Fueled by the high-tech success of corporations like Google, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Yahoo, eBay, Apple Computer and Intel, San Jose had the highest household income of any large city in America in 2005, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. Santa Clara and San Mateo now are two of California's three most-wealthy counties, with median household incomes one-third higher than San Francisco's.
Key meeting on A's
``The A's already have their sugar daddy with Cisco, and the Niners don't have their sugar daddy yet,'' Noll said.
On Tuesday, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will join Wolff and Cisco Systems Chief Executive John Chambers to unveil the A's new ``Cisco Field,'' a platform to demonstrate the company's newest technology, such as wireless devices that would allow fans to call up player stats or order food. The park is expected to seat up to 35,000, and be surrounded by a commercial wrap of retail shopping, housing and hotels that would resemble Santana Row in San Jose. Oakland doesn't appear to be putting up a fight.
But San Francisco officials aren't ready to let the 49ers head south. York envisions a new stadium across from the team's headquarters and the Great America amusement park. It would include about 150 luxury suites -- 40 percent more than the team has at Monster Park -- and about 7,500 club seats, segregated from regular fans, and typically purchased by companies or high-rollers, with special access to restaurants and other stadium amenities.
Luxury suite sales are especially important for an NFL team that plans to privately finance its stadium, as the 49ers say they plan to do.
``I don't think there's any question that this is viewed as a great opportunity by sports franchises to gain access to more corporate dollars and more corporate support. The nexus of the business community in the Bay Area has clearly moved from San Francisco to Silicon Valley,'' said Gary Fazzino, vice president for government affairs for Hewlett-Packard, who said his comments do not reflect any commitment from HP.
``Would there be more interest in purchasing luxury suites if you're five miles from your corporate headquarters rather than 30 miles from your corporate headquarters? Absolutely.''
Others are less sure, given the large fan footprint for an NFL team, whether a move to Silicon Valley would make it significantly easier for the 49ers to sell premium seats.
Fazzino, a former Palo Alto mayor, said there may be yet another reason why the 49ers' York and the A's Wolff decided to move now: Politics. Especially with the elections over, the politics of Silicon Valley are more placid than in San Francisco and Oakland.
``I think San Francisco is much more balkanized. It's a much more diverse population, with diverse interests, and a very intense political environment, more than is the case in Silicon Valley,'' he said.
To build a new stadium at Candlestick Point in San Francisco, the 49ers had to get approval to acquire 40 acres of state parkland, a difficult process that the team said would require changing two state laws.
And that's where the property comes in.
It's just easier -- and usually cheaper -- to build a stadium in a suburban location than in a city. And Silicon Valley already has a highly evolved network of freeways and transit. The Santa Clara 49ers stadium site would be served by three freeways and would be a two-minute walk from a VTA light-rail station and a 10-minute walk from ACE commuter rail.
Consider the harried Intel executive in 2012, hoping to finalize a multimillion dollar deal by entertaining a client at the Monday night 49ers game. Instead of fighting the rush hour on Highway 101 to get to San Francisco, they could walk to their suite at a Santa Clara stadium while others in Silicon Valley could catch light rail or an ACE commuter train.
As good as it gets
Tony Gonzales, a vice president with HNTB Architecture, designers of the proposed 49ers stadium, said the Santa Clara site reflects the fruition of 20 years of the valley's transportation planning.
``I must say this site sort of has it all for us,'' Gonzales said. ``The thing we like most about this site is that all of the infrastructure is here.''
That's not the case at Candlestick Point. Building a privately financed stadium supported by a subsidiary housing and retail development on the tight geography of the Peninsula would require $765 million in infrastructure improvements, including a new interchange for 101 and construction of one of the world's largest parking garages, accommodating 10,000 cars.
Because of the garage, the 49ers worry, many fans would have to forget about one football institution: Tailgating.
York, the 49ers owner, said he's not using Santa Clara as leverage, even as he plans to reopen talks with San Francisco officials this week.
Many observers, however, are not convinced. Richard D. Gray is one of them.
``Their job is to get as much money out of the municipality as they can,'' said Gray, who was a lead negotiator for the state of Connecticut in its failed bid to lure the New England Patriots to Hartford in 1999. ``And they are good businessmen; you can't blame them for that. But don't think fan loyalty has a . . . thing to do with it.''