The City of San Francisco may have felt jilted when the 49ers decided to build their new, $1.2 billion stadium 40 miles to the south in Santa Clara.
San Francisco is over that now.
That was the theme during a media event at the stadium today where San Francisco mayor Ed Lee, San Jose mayor Chuck Reed and Santa Clara mayor Jamie Matthews spoke about the regional effort for - and regional benefits of - landing a Super Bowl at the new stadium. The game would be played in Santa Clara but San Francisco would be the focal point for the week's festivities.
The San Francisco Super Bowl Bid Committee will make its pitch for hosting Super Bowl 50 or 51 at the NFL owners meeting in Boston on May 21.
"I've already turned the page on the Niners building a stadium here," said Lee atop the stadium's northwest promenade. "... The strength of the bid will be in the collaboration of the region."
Bid committee chairman Daniel Lurie would not put a figure on the economic impact to hosting a Super Bowl, but he noted that other cities that have held the event recently have reported a boost of anywhere from $250 million to more than $500 million. "We don't want to over promise," Lurie said. "What we see is that every city that's had a Super Bowl wants it back."
Lurie founded Tipping Point, which raises money to help fight poverty in the Bay Area. The mayors of several other Bay Area cities, including Mountain View, Milpitas, Cupertino and Los Altos, also were on hand today, as were officials from Oakland.
The first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles in 1967, and there would be a nice bit of symmetry if the 50th game were played in California. The state hasn't hosted a Super Bowl since the Raiders and Buccaneers squared off in San Diego in 2003. The last game in the Bay Area was in 1985.
When the owners meet in May, they first will decide whether Santa Clara or South Florida will host Super Bowl L, which will be played in February 2016. The loser of that competition immediately will go against Houston to host the following year's game, Super Bowl LI.
The 50th game holds the most prestige, and that's the one the 49ers are gunning to get. Team CEO Jed York said he hoped the stadium's hallmarks - its technology and its sustainable design - catch the eye of the owners. "We have enough solar panels for our 10 games to be powered by the sun," he said.
The stadium is 35 percent complete and is expected to be ready in 2014. The number of workers has increased from 600 to 1,000 in recent months as the construction accelerates. "Suffice to say we've experienced some great weather and we're excited about opening on time," project executive Jack Hill said.
Also: 49ers shooting for unprecedented LEED Gold status at new stadium.
-- Matt Barrows
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.