Monster Park

This development comes as no surprise to folks that have been covering the story, including SFist's pick of the local pages, Matier and Ross. They predicted that the deal would be signed by Monster, even though at the time Virgin, Macromedia and Organic were also said to be in the hunt. Newsom promised $3 to $5 million for the deal - anything more would help to defeat the arguments of opponents. Another piece of the puzzle was the recent death of Al Dermody, who originally suggested the name Candlestick, and could be used by detractors looking to garner sentiment.

But Noel Lee recently purchased the Racer's Group Porsche #66 - 2002 Le Mans winner - and in exchange bought a later model Porsche GT racer for the team. It's obvious that his sporting ambitions might drive him to pay a premium on the open market.

Matt Gonzalez, president of the Board of Supervisors, has threatened to sue the city if a deal is passed before voters have a chance to decide. On the November Ballot is Proposition H, which the Chamber of Commerce opposes, which would give voters the right to choose whether to keep Candlestick Park as the name or allow the city to auction the naming rights off to the highest bidder. Both the City Attorney's office and the San Francisco 49ers front office have agreed that Proposition H is unlikely to derail the Mayor's ultimate decision.

The fight pits the exigencies of the budget against a tradition of sporting excellence. The larger battle, of course, is over the construction of an entirely new stadium, which the Mayor firmly supports. Detractors argue that private benefit shouldn't be redeemed from public property, because it sets a precedent that public facilities are ultimately available to the highest bidder. Regardless, the Board did opt to grant naming rights to the Niners.

All SFist knows is that if you want good speaker cable, a couple of sheared extension cords do nicely - low guage, all-copper and you can save the male and female AC connectors to boot.