Price Tag For 49ers Stadium In Santa Clara Going Up
SANTA CLARA (KCBS) – Plans for a new 49ers football stadium in Santa Clara are facing more challenges, a year after voters gave approval for the project.
The 68,500 seat stadium is now expected to cost nearly a billion dollars, after officials raised the estimated price tag by $50 million this week.
San Francisco 49ers Chief Operating Officer Paraag Marathe said the new estimates are mainly due to a more accurate cost projection and design changes.
"There's going to be certain requirements that we want to have that will become a piece of this," Marathe said. "This is all still in the estimate stages."
KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:
But the $50 million may only be a minor concern compared to other challenges, like selling the naming rights to finance the stadium.
"If the Giants and Jets can't sell naming rights in New York City and the Dallas Cowboys can't sell their naming rights, that says maybe we have a problem," said Stanford University sports economist Roger Noll.
Noll said another issue is the NFL lockout, as owners are asking players to accept smaller salaries to help finance new stadiums.
One person who remains confident that the project will move forward is Santa Clara's Acting Assistant City Manager Carol McCarthy.
"The stadium has a variety of funding sources," she said. "We're not reliant on any one thing."
McCarthy said she remains confident the stadium will be completed by 2015.
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