Included in the recently ratified NFL collective bargaining agreement is a fund for building new stadiums. If you want to know how it works, Niners Nation takes a crack at it:
The players proposed that there should be a straight up 50% split of the revenue with no deductions at all. The owners countered saying that they needed extra deductions due to rising costs of benefits and asked for an extra $1 billion in deductions after which they would give the players 60% of the adjusted revenue. This worked out to be 45% of total revenue, so the two sides were apart by 5% of total revenue…
The previous labor agreement famously had “cost credits” (deducted from revenue totals) that the owners wanted to extend. These credits were given for various business expenses…
In the new (agreement), there is only one small deduction to be taken from revenue, and that is a 1.5% stadium credit…enough to provide each team with $125 to $150 million credit for new stadiums. This is great news for the 49ers, since that would cover more than 10% of the cost of any new stadium. If they end up sharing a stadium with the Raiders the new stadium could expect a $250 to $300 million credit…
Last week, Cy Musiker talked about the stadium-sharing idea with professor Roger Noll of Stanford, who studies the economics of sports. Noll said the NFL was encouraging the teams to co-habitate for the simple reason that the league can save money by building one new venue instead of two. Professor Noll also talked about some of the reasons why sharing a stadium isn’t so attractive to teams, and how the concept might impact where the franchises wind up: San Francisco, Santa Clara, or Oakland.
In the Chronicle today, 49ers’ President Jed York talks about the money allotted for new stadiums:
“That’s going to be enough for several new stadium projects,” York said of the potential annual support. How the league will divide the money remains to be seen. York reiterated that he is open to sharing a stadium with the Raiders and said he has talked to Santa Clara officials about that possibility. He also said the league has not pressured the 49ers and Raiders to combine their stadium efforts.
Recently, we asked our Facebook and Twitter users to weigh in on the stadium-sharing idea. Some of the comments we received:
http://storify.com/kqednews/should-the-oakland-raiders-and-san-francisco-49ers