The Santa Clara Stadium Association, a booster group aiming to move the A's to Santa Clara, presented a proposal outline to the city council to build a $262 million, 42,000-seat stadium on city owned property across the street from the Great America theme park.
The association submitted a proposal to the city council four months ago that stated about $150 million of the stadium financing would use public funds and the remainder would be raised through private means.
The Santa Clara City Council responded that the proposal was filled with significant issues and problems. For example, the proposal suggested a $12.5 million loan from City Utilities that is not feasible, as the City Utility fund cannot lend for private use not related to utilities.
The proposal also required $82 million in bonding capacity, but the city cannot risk being responsible for paying back funds if revenue streams from the ballpark are not sufficient. It was recommended that SCSA make sufficient modifications to the proposal to provide a guarantee that the bonds will be paid in full.
Some other issues involved construction costs and financing estimates that would have to be researched.
Santa Clara's Assistant City Manager told GlobeSt.com that there is also an open issue of territory rights. The San Francisco Giants own territorial rights to the South Bay and Major League Baseball will not permit the A's to move to Santa Clara without modifying the situation.
"We will spend a few months reviewing the modifications and meet again to continue discussions," said Garratt. "They have presented information that proposes the economic benefits of having a stadium in the community and offers extra tourist opportunities. Right now, we have to check and validate these."
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