It's Wednesday-- Do You Know Where Your Football Team Is?
While most of us were either not working or goofing off at work last week, Gavin stepped up and sent the 49ers yet another proposal to keep the team from moving. This proposal? How's about building a new stadium at the Hunters Point Naval Yard. The Niners were nonplussed.
In a letter to John York, Gavin said that a new stadium plan at Hunter's Point would alleviate many of York's issues with rebuilding the new stadium at Candlestick. The benefits, according to Gavin is that they're already doing redevelopment there, it's easier to get to than the 'Stick (?), there's enough room for parking and tail gaiting, and the building of it won't affect what's going on at Candlestick. Gavin also said that if the Niners jump at the proposal, he'll fast track everything so he could get the deal pushed through.
John York, however, was having none of it, saying in response that they've looked at the site and don't think it would work. Mentioned as negatives in the site-- it's not as accessible as Candlestick, there's no way anything this huge could get politically put on the fast track, and there's no guarantee the site will be cleaned up and ready to go by 2012. Oh yeah, and then there's the little matter of all the toxic waste that's on the site. On the other hand, building on a toxic waste dump has worked out fine for the Meadowlands.
Image by Thu Hoang Ly of the Mercury News
In the letter back to Gavin, York also took issue with several statements Gavin made in an editorial he wrote in which he said in essence, York doesn't care about black people. While we shall refrain from taking a side in any of this, we do have to say in reading the letter back to Gavin, York sure does occasionally come off as a bit of a ninny. To help matters along, York also hired a political consultant with experience in stadium matters as well as other political campaigns to help pave the way for the move to Santa Clara. We couldn't help but notice that in typical York fashion, he hired a consultant yet to actually win anything.
The Mrs., meanwhile, told the Mercury that the Niners were hoping to make a final decision within three months as to what they were going to do. We wish her luck with that. Not only are most of the people involved down south hesitant about the plans but the NFL, while giving the Santa Clara plan their approval, are staying out of the battle between SF and the Niners.
Oh, we couldn't find the link to the story, but in the Year in Review issue in Sports Illustrated, one of their football guys predicted that York wouldn't be able to work out any sort of plan and in frustration, sold the team to Larry Ellision. We're not betting men (well....) but we'd actually put money on that happening as opposed to the opening of the "Great America Amusement Park Park."