Feature

49ers threatened by Mayor in stadium dispute

49ers threatened by Mayor in stadium dispute

NFL American football franchise the San Francisco 49ers has become embroiled in a dispute with the local authority over operating costs at its Levi’s Stadium home ground.

The 75,000-capacity venue is situated in the city of Santa Clara, whose Mayor, Lisa Gilmor, has accused the 49ers of spending taxpayers’ money on stadium-related costs.

Such actions would go against the Measure J ruling approved by the public when the construction of the stadium was proposed in 2010.

The CBS San Francisco division of US television network CBS reported that during a Santa Clara City Council meeting on Tuesday night, Gilmore requested that the 49ers provide financial documents to auditors to settle the matter.

Should the team not comply with the Mayor’s requests, it faces having the management of Levi’s Stadium taken away by city leaders.

According to CBS, Gilmore said: “If you, the 49ers, would just give us the information covered under the agreement, we wouldn’t have any issues.”

The 49ers deny any wrongdoing. In a statement reported by CBS, the team’s director of corporate communications, Roger Hacker, said the 49ers organisation “has been subject to a campaign of misinformation and headline-grabbing accusations, most recently in regard to the management of Levi’s Stadium”.

Hacker added: “Contrary to the Mayor’s recent statements to the press, she has no right to terminate the 49ers as manager of Levi’s Stadium. Her unjustified threat to remove the 49ers has unnecessarily created a fear of job loss in the many employees who have worked so hard on behalf of the stadium authority to make Levi’s Stadium so successful in such a short time.”

Levi’s Stadium opened in July 2014. On February 7 this year, it hosted NFL’s season-ending Super Bowl showpiece between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos.

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