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49ers Santa Clara Stadium Project Passes City Council Hurdle

SANTA CLARA (CBS SF) - The Santa Clara Stadium Authority on Tuesday approved milestone agreements that bring the construction of the 49ers stadium several steps closer to reality.

The authority, which includes City Council members, the city manager and the city attorney, approved a procurement process that will be used to hire subcontractors to perform roughly $500 million in construction work for the new stadium. The bidding process is expected to begin this fall.

The stadium authority also approved the selection of Legends Premium Sales as the marketing agency to manage and sell stadium builders licenses, or seat licenses.

Legends has sold $138 million in luxury boxes so far, and will begin selling seat licenses in January 2012. Proceeds will go toward stadium construction.

The authority also gave the green light to an agreement with Centerplate, a concessionaire company, to provide input into the design of food, beverage, and merchandise areas.

An agreement was also approved to allow the 49ers Stadium Company, or Stadco, to move forward with plans to fine-tune the design for the $950 million stadium.

Additionally, the authority approved a $400,000 contract with Keyser Marston Associates to assist with the disposition and development agreement and structuring of the overall stadium financing plan.

"It's very, very exciting," Deputy City Manager Carol McCarthy said. "We're moving forward in lots of different areas."

The 68,500-seat stadium is expected to open next to the Great America theme park in time for the 2015 football season.

On Thursday, the city will break ground on a parking garage across from the planned stadium site.

Next Tuesday, Hall of Fame football player Joe Montana is expected to present a proposal to lease and develop a luxury hotel on two city-owned parcels of land north of Tasman Avenue, across from the stadium.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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