The San Francisco 49ers and their plans for a stadium in Santa Clara certainly are clicking. While other teams pursuing stadiums are struggling (the Minnesota Vikings have yet to pick a site, or even a city), in various ways, the 49ers just received a nice infusion of capital for their $1 billion stadium in Santa Clara. It comes from a pretty reliable source, as it happens.
Jed York, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the 49ers, had a tweet about the boost to their funding on Thursday:
The NFL just approved $200 million of funding for the Santa Clara stadium. A big step forward today...
That $200 million was not altogether unexpected, but it's great confirmation. The league owners approved the funding as part of their G-4 loan program, of which the 49ers are the first beneficiaries. The loans are paid back to the league through various methods of revenue generation throughout the stadium, the most likely of which is initial PSL revenue. Such revenue usually is shared with the league, but it will first go into the G-4 program.
Another method to repay the loans is in incremental regular ticket revenue, which is essentially the difference in ticket sales between the new stadium and the final three years of the old one. One thing that is interesting (potentially only to stadium nerds like myself), is that the loan applies to the 49ers, given that the initial definitions in the G-4 program stated that it can't go to a team that is moving outside of its city.
Apparently, it actually refers to teams moving out of the area and possibly changing its name and brand. Since they are still the San Francisco 49ers, and since they are contributing at least $200 million privately, they are receiving this $200 million from the league, which is the maximum under G-4.
In a press release following the loan approval, York expressed how eager the 49ers are to charge forward with this stadium:
"With the NFL's muscle now behind the new stadium, we are moving forward," said Jed York, CEO of the 49ers. "I expect an official ground-breaking ceremony very soon. Get your hard hats ready; we are embarking on the path to the next generation of 49ers football."
Strong words, those. Wonder if they'll be selling red and gold hard hats?