Naming the New 49ers Stadium - My Nomination Won!

If you read that blog entry title, you might have noticed I won the naming of the future 49ers Stadium in Santa Clara. Well... that's half-true. In fact, it was a hypothetical name that I suggested.

Last Wednesday, SFGate's 'City Insider' asked their commentators for their ideas to name the future 49ers Stadium in Santa Clara. Many suggested names that identifies how they feel about the team, such as making fun of the Yorks, to mentioning about the tech sector.

I said to myself, hell, why not take a punch at some fun names. I suggested:

1. Candlestick II (the roman numeral signifies two middle fingers)
2. SuperMegaTaxpayerDollarWaste Stadium

It turned out, suggestion number two got on the ballot and it was active over the weekend for everyone to vote.

Here was the choices SFGate posted for voting:

1. SuperMegaTaxpayerDollarWaste Stadium
2. York's Sports Suckplex
3. Fool's Gold Field
4. iPark
5. San Francisco 49ers of Anaheim Stadium
6. Field of Schemes
   
7. Field of Dashed Hopes and Broken Dreams
8. York's Dorks
9. "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" Stadium
10. Mike "I Want Winners" Singletary Memorial Field

The results (posted here) says, my nomination actually won! I had the most first place votes (250) and the most overall votes (562).

Yeah yeah... like the Niners are really going to pick my name. Maybe York is laughing his ass off right now saying... "It's all private funds! (Cough!)"

(Regarding the photo: Can Crazy Crab be a co-mascot for the 49ers?)

49ers Stadium in Santa Clara with Taxpayer Money - Are you nuts?

I keep hearing in the news about the 49ers wanting to build a football stadium in Santa Clara, nearby their main headquarters office and next to the Great America theme park.

I'll admit, Candlestick Park is really getting old and way outdated and a new facility is needed, but is Santa Clara going after the deal of a lifetime or ready to get screwed?

Santa Clara is proposing to pay a portion of the stadium costs with taxpayer money, which makes me wonder, why does the 49ers organization want to pay for a stadium with the public's money?  Can't that money help pay for other improvement projects like fixing potholes, fixing schools and other local government buildings, or maybe opening a community clinic?

It also makes me wonder why the 49ers can't simply buy up the land and build it themselves with their OWN MONEY.  With the economy all beat-up, all levels of government facing layoffs, cuts, furlough, and closures; it doesn't make practical sense for a city to invest millions of dollars of tax money into building a stadium that won't be used on a daily basis.

Now what I mean by "daily basis" is this: a sports stadium is not used every day, in fact, a football stadium is used only about a dozen times a year.  If you include another sports team, that still doesn't make up for making it a fully useful facility.  I would support using tax money to build a hospital or a City Hall because the property will be used every single day for business.  Tax money on a facility not used on a near daily basis = waste of money.  Tax money on a site used daily = a worthwhile investment.

What's wrong 49ers?  Why can't you fund it yourself?

Look at AT&T Park, they built their facility without public money and did additional fundraising by simply selling "charter" seats (seat licensing).  The Cal Bears are raising money by selling 50 year ticket plans for up to $250K a seat with additional perks.  Even corporate headquarters are not paid with tax money, they have the money to build and maintain their facilities.

For you taxpayers in Santa Clara, think about what kind of debt the city and how much more in taxes you will pay for the stadium.  Give the 49ers the finger and vote against it.