For those who don’t know, Levi Stadium in Santa Clara was selected to be one of 16 cities hosting World Cup games in 2026. The six games at Levi Stadium will be played between June 13 and July 1 of next year. Considering how contentious the history has been between the San Francisco 49ers and the city of Santa Clara, I figured something would blow up with this event. Then I recently saw this headline in the San Jose spotlight (“Santa Clara isn’t spending taxpayer money on World Cup upgrades”) and was a bit intrigued. In the article, the author claims to have done a “data analysis” on the event while also compiling “government budgets, meeting recordings and reporting from local news outlets nationwide” to see if any taxpayer money would be spent to facilitate the World Cup. The results of this deep dive found that Santa Clara would not be “breaking the bank” with the FIFA games. Additionally, as the article points out, a 2010 law called Measure J does not allow the city’s general fund to be used for sports-related expenses.
Interesting. Wasn’t it just a few months ago when a Santa Clara official publicly admitted that hosting the World Cup was “highly likely” going to be a “money loser” for the city? This led to a public official asking this question…“Why did we even start doing this?”. So why is there so much confusion about this? Because it was a nightmare for anyone to get the documents that FIFA and the city-hosts signed. The city of Santa Clara did not negotiate with FIFA. Instead, the Bay Area Host Committee (“BAHC”), a non-profit with local sports leaders as members, and executives with the San Francisco 49ers were the ones who negotiated the terms of the agreement. The BAHC have publicly claimed that the agreement with FIFA “insulate the city from costs associated with the six World Cup games”. Additionally, BAHC maintains that they have “agreed to pay for any costs the BAHC fails to cover”…more on this in a bit.
However, it wasn’t the public having trouble trying to get these signed documents. Santa Clara city leaders couldn’t get their hands on them either. Time went by and even though the city needed to plan for the World Cup, they had no idea what they were responsible for during the games. Eventually, a Civil Grand Jury ordered the nonprofit group to give the city the documents by February 1st, 2023. While the city was given a few documents, they were not given the majority of the agreements, including the pages detailing the city’s responsibilities. It took the city threatening a lawsuit for the documents to be handed over. When the city finally reviewed the agreements, it was a bit of a shock to them.
“Until now, Santa Clara officials balked at revealing how they plan to pay for hosting six World Cup matches at the publicly owned stadium, releasing only heavily redacted financial documents and rebuffing requests for information under the state Public Records Act” – San Francisco Chronicle, 2024
Where does this money come from? Well, the BAHC forgot to mention that there are other agreements that do force the city to pay for additional costs. For example, the mayor pointed out that the agreement calls for the BAHC to receive a “suite and 52 tickets” for the World Cup games. Who pays for this? According to the naming rights agreement, the city is required to “cover those costs”. The BAHC also forgot to mention that they will pay for any and all costs related to the World Cup games…but each cost must be deemed to be a “qualified event cost”. Isn’t it a shock that the agreement is incredibly vague about what a qualified event cost is? When you factor in the constant legal threats and actual litigation that the team and city have fought over the last decade, this could be a huge problem after the games.
Several cities have tried just about everything in their power to stop the public from seeing the actual contracts that local officials signed. It is easy to see why FIFA and organizers do not want the public to see the contracts. As NorthJersey.com wrote in a story, local officials in New Jersey had been publicly bragging about all the benefits of hosting their World Cup games. On the flip side, “little has been said about the actual contract”. For months, the newspaper tried but kept being improperly denied the ability to see the contract. It was only after the paper’s lawyer threatened a lawsuit that the contract was handed over. So what did the newspaper find? Nothing much. Just a few things here or there that taxpayers are obligated to pay for.
Excuse me. Taxpayers in New Jersey are liable for “costs that could easily balloon into hundreds of millions of dollars”. As always, neither the city nor sports commission nor local sports team wanted to answer any questions about the contract. FIFA’s demands are also pathetic in today’s world. Multiple cities, like Chicago, decided not to host the World Cup due to the long and insane list of expectations set by FIFA. Such as local cities being liable for all taxes that FIFA owes from the games, demanding FIFA officials be given a special road to and from the airport and many other conditions.
Another thing. You may be wondering why a grand jury is involved in this, and that would be a good question. In late 2022, a grand jury released an absolutely scathing report detailing how the 49ers were crossing all sorts of political influence lines. One example would involve 5 council members who were routinely meeting with the team and voting with the team on every viewpoint brought before the city. Another example was a city official pointing out the clear conflict-of-interest issues with the 49ers president being a part of the FIFA negotiations. She was laid off after expressing this view. One funny thing that I did find in the grand jury report was this line stating that “one estimate for the city’s World Cup bill that exceeded $15 million”.
The problem with this entire process is how little is known about these contracts. The BAHC will pay for all expenses and costs…until you read the fine print where it says “approved costs” and doesn’t expand on what that is. The BAHC/FIFA will help reimburse city employees affected by the games…until you read the fine print and see how the process is structured to be confusing and long. Or as the mayor of Santa Clara called it…“It is mind-numbing. It is cumbersome”.
