The bid to host the 2016 Super Bowl at San Francisco 49ers' new Santa Clara stadium is regional effort and would benefit the entire Bay Area, several mayors said Wednesday.
With the unfinished $1.2 billion Santa Clara Stadium as a backdrop, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said the 49ers' offer to host the Super Bowl is a collaborative effort to get a huge cash infusion for area businesses.
No one gave a clear number however, as to how much revenue the region could expect though other cities may have received an amount somewhere between a quarter and half a billion, according to NBC Bay Area News.
The stadium, which is about 35 percent completed, is a finalist with the Miami Dolphins in South Florida as the site for the 50th Super Bowl in 2016, the winner to be selected on May 21 by NFL team owners.
Lee said that to win its bid with the NFL, the Bay Area needs its governments, transportation agencies, businesses and other regional organizations to show they are working together to make the Super Bowl event a success.
"I've already turned the page on the Niners building the stadium here," said Lee, referring to the 49ers leaving Candlestick Park in San Francisco, their home since 1971, for the new Santa Clara venue in 2014. "In fact, I'm glad to actually see this is going as well as it is," Lee said.
"We made a commitment to the economy of the whole region."
North Bay fans might be negatively affected, however, reluctant to venture the extra hour's drive south to Santa Clara for a game.
But besides how the stadium could impact the region economically, no other topic was addressed at the event, not even traffic or safety. A Patch reporter tried to get answer to some of these questions but was told that this media event was not about those issues. Even the San Francisco Chronicle noted that the "press event Wednesday that was all about optics and messaging but short on substance."
The Chronicle did note how home games will run off the power stored from the stadium's solar panels.
However, ABC Bay Area news reports that the bid committee will address substantive issues in their report to the NFL owners who will eventually award the bid for Super Bowl L. The report will also include all of the bells and whistles—including all of the technology—that the committee hopes will sway votes their way.
"We have one of the largest, most important economies in the world," Reed said. "Bringing the Super Bowl here will be a regional effort with regional benefits."
The 49ers, who lost the Super Bowl in a tight contest with the Baltimore Ravens last month, will play this coming football season at Candlestick and then move to the Santa Clara stadium next year.
Team officials held a news conference this morning for the media inside the stadium construction site with dignitaries such as Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews, 49ers CEO Jed York and Daniel Lurie, chief of the official committee for the Super Bowl bid.
The stadium will have 68,500 seats, 1.85 million square feet of space, 21,000 parking spaces, two scoreboards covering 13,600 square feet, 30 escalators and 370 concession stands, according to the stadium's website.
Tickets will be as low at $85 for a single reserved upper deck seat to about $375 for a 50-yard-line club seat and season tickets start at $850 each plus $2,000 for a stadium builders license, or SBL, fee.
A key feature will be 165 luxury suites on sale with theater-style stadium seats, a lounge, flat screen televisions and Internet access for $250,000 to $350,000 each that can be resold like property or even willed to relatives, 49er spokesman Bob Lange said.
The suites are within a separate, windowed pavilion on the west side of the stadium and not intermingled with other seat decks, Lange said.
The winner of the bid will be announced on May 21.
Ken Guanga and Bay City News contributed to this reporting.
