SF 49ERS Owner John York - Video On Olympics Bid

San Francisco 49ers owner John York explains that he made it clear to SF Mayor Gavin Newsom not to base the region's Olympic Bid on their stadium. If that's the case, the 49ers should not have made a presentation to the SF Chamber of Commerce with the idea that the stadium would be part of the Olympics Bid.

John's really pissed off a lot of people. Oh and KNBR's Ralph Barberi's totally wrong about this matter -- the Olympics are important to the region and the 49ers screwed up.

James Bond "Casino Royale" Behind The Scenes Video

I found this cool video of behind the scenes work for Casino Royale on YouTube. In it you see the human side of Bond, as Daniel Craig takes a moment to comment on the progress of the movie, and give some quick qips.

James Bond "Casino Royale" Trailer Video - BBC Gives Rave Review Of New Bond

I just found this article by the BBC which is a review of the new movie Casino Royale, the 21st movie in the James Bond series, which has seen each actor, save for two (George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton) go on to super stardom, or in the case of Pierce Brosnan, solidify his super star status.

Paul Arendt, the review writer, reports that Craig is not just a good Bond, he's a great Bond. We'll all know starting this Friday, November 17th.

The new bond is Daniel Craig -- and he's blond. This minor difference does nothing to diminish the quality of Bond or the film, according to the BCC. Here's the review, and the movie preview below:

Santa Clara Politicians Wreck Bay Area Olympic Bid For 49ers Dream

When I was a City Planning graduate student at Cal Berkeley, I was first introduced to the concept of "regionalism" where one city's economic development policies are shaped to benefit not just its municipal jurisdiction, but the region it's within.

It came as no surprise to me that this concept was discussed in the backdrop of the San Francisco Bay Area of which UC Berkeley is a major part. There are nine closely linked counties here and cities that are at times in the same county and find themselves competing for the same resources.

Like sports teams.

Sports teams are more than just economic impacts, they're an expression of the culture of a city. Game day is a great time to see friends, relatives, and your doctor, and all at the stadium. When sports teams leave, a part of the city goes with them. This would be true for the 49ers. But it's also true when a region's cities work together to draw a sports team or event. This is what has happened with the San Francisco Bay Area Olympic Bid. Over the last decade, this effort has been a model of regional coorperation. A kind of unwritten contract. A contract that's about to be broken by Santa Clara's elected officials, led by Mayor Pat Mahan (pictured).

In one fell swoop, Santa Clara's not only threatened to damage San Francisco's culture, but trash the Bay Area's chances to land the Olympics. In the case of the Olympics, Santa Clara and Santa Clara County would have enjoyed overflow use of their hotels, so they would be an economic gainer -- but so would San Francisco and Oakland.

In the case of the 49ers, Santa Clara also gains if they move there, but it's at the expense of the Bay Area. That's not a good tradeoff, and it's for that reason Santa Clara should teminate its pursuit of the 49ers.

Santa Clara's argument is that it's the best choice for the team to build a new stadium in. But with an organization that has as much history and social impact as the 49ers, that's not true from a holistic standpoint. Indeed, look at the bad feelings that have already been generated. That's not going to go away and can effect everything from State politics to the direction of Federal dollars to the needs of Santa Clara. So when you add it all up -- politics and negative economic impact on San Francisco, as well as the loss of the good international will generated by the very act of bidding for the Olympics, let alone getting the Olympics -- Santa Clara's being a real selfish meany of a municipality.

The best solution is for Santa Clara to be a uniter and not a divider. The best action is for Santa Clara's Mayor to say to 49ers Owner John York "You know. You should really sit and work things out with San Francisco and that Olympics Bid and if things aren't workable, then have Mayor Newsom call us and say so. This way, we'll have a clear go-ahead."

That's a great example of regionalism. Santa Clara, be a Bay Area team player.

Senator Diane Feinstein Brings SF 49ers Owner John York In To Talk With Mayor Newsom - SF Gate

Thank God for Senator Feinstein! Now you're about to see how sports and politics intersect. 49ers Owner John York's about to learn the basic rule of corporate institutions: when you inherit control of a business institution, you share it with the community impacted by it.

John -- in his "I'll take my marbles and run" actions -- forgot this. He's about to learn a lesson. Plus, he's threatened to wreck an Olympics Bid that San Francisco and the Bay Area region has worked on for almost ten years, and was the front runner amoung US cities. John's move was a terrible development, and it's matched only by Santa Clara County's unwillingness to be a team player.

More on that in another post.

49ers agree to talk to S.F. on stadium
Feinstein, Pelosi pressure team's owner to reopen decision on Santa Clara move

Cecilia M. Vega, John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writers
Saturday, November 11, 2006

Negotiations to keep the 49ers in San Francisco will officially resume next week after two of California's most powerful politicians intervened, officials on both sides of the talks told The Chronicle.

Two days after the team abruptly announced its plans to move to Santa Clara, Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday gathered Mayor Gavin Newsom, his chief of staff and 49ers co-owner John York and his son, Jed, in her San Francisco office for a morning meeting.

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi also phoned John York and left him a message expressing her disappointment and telling him it is "unacceptable for the 49ers to leave San Francisco," according to an aide.

Though the team agreed to resume talks with San Francisco, it also will continue negotiating with Santa Clara to build a new stadium there.

The new development, however, left Newsom feeling like "nothing's changed."

"No new expectations have been raised," he said after the meeting in Feinstein's office.

While on Thursday the mayor angrily denounced the team's decision to move to the South Bay and vowed that the city would explore legal options to keep the Niners from leaving, on Friday he referred to the meeting as "great," "nice" and "not supposed to be made public."

"It was good to get together right away before letting a month go by and then more animus is created," Newsom said. "That was the spirit of the meeting, to say, 'Let's just get together and let's try and tone it down,' but at the same time to be resolved that we don't want the team to leave, but it's not an at-all-costs strategy."

Lisa Lang, spokeswoman for the 49ers, confirmed that the team would be pursuing dual discussions with the two cities.

"The doors definitely are not closed in San Francisco, and we are continuing to talk to the city to see what we can work out," she said.

City leaders in San Francisco and Santa Clara had expressed shock at the team's plans to trade in Candlestick Point for the South Bay.

But the potential move also worried San Francisco's representatives in Washington, as well as in Sacramento. Assemblyman Mark Leno on Friday announced a plan to introduce legislation that would ban any professional sports franchise that is not headquartered or does not play games in San Francisco from using the city's name, unless the Board of Supervisors and mayor specifically authorizes it.

"It's his proposition. It's his team. He gets to do with it as he chooses," Leno said of John York. "But he can't take our name."

The team informed San Francisco officials late Wednesday that they intended to drop plans for a stadium and retail housing complex at Candlestick Point and instead move the proposed development to a parking lot near Great America amusement park in Santa Clara. The 49ers have been trying to rebuild the stadium at Candlestick Point for nearly 10 years.

Infrastructure was the 49ers' largest concern, York said during a news conference announcing the move. York cited the high cost of building a huge parking garage and of bringing public transit to Candlestick Point, saying it would have doubled the $600 million to $800 million stadium price tag. He also expressed concern that a parking garage would have killed the tradition of tailgating before football games.

As San Francisco officials shuddered at the thought of losing a coveted NFL franchise -- one founded in the city 60 years ago -- officials in Santa Clara welcomed the possibility of gaining one, and on Friday remained convinced that their city was the team's first choice for building a new stadium.

"They're moving ahead with Santa Clara, but I think they're going to listen to San Francisco," Santa Clara Vice Mayor Kevin Moore said after learning from a 49ers team official about the meeting in Feinstein's office. "I think we're in the top spot now."

Moore said he was even more confident Friday than he was earlier in the week about the team calling Santa Clara home.

He pointed to the $765 million in transportation and parking infrastructure costs projected for the proposed development at Candlestick Point and to the logistical hassles of building on a peninsula with an existing stadium in place.

"I've had great moments at Candlestick Park, but it doesn't make sense anymore," said Moore, an avid 49ers fan. "I know that Candlestick Point is not the best place for fan entertainment, and the numbers are crazy, just crazy."

Santa Clara Mayor Patricia Mahan was diplomatic about the possible move.

"Anything the two of our cities can do to keep the 49ers in the Bay Area is great," Mahan said. "That's the most important thing to me, to make sure the 49ers have an appropriate home in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, so that there will always be a San Francisco 49ers."

She maintained, though, that the Santa Clara site wouldn't have parking or traffic-congestion problems and would be a better fit for fans than the Candlestick Point proposal.

"The 49ers are going to make their decision on what's best for the fans and what's best for the team," Mahan said Friday. "As long as they're staying in the Bay Area, that's what's most important to me."

York told reporters a day earlier that, "it would be foolish to just slam the door," if San Francisco officials approached the team for further talks, but he said the focus was on Santa Clara.

With that in mind, Newsom said he was heading cautiously into the resumed talks with the team.

"We're not going to be in the middle of being played against each other," he told reporters Friday. "That will not happen."

The San Francisco project's potential demise also dealt a blow to the city's hope to land the 2016 Olympic Games. The United States Olympic Committee is scheduled to make a decision on whether it will recommend a U.S. city -- either San Francisco, Los Angeles or Chicago -- by the end of the year. Whether the city has a stadium that can accommodate the Games' Opening and Closing ceremonies is central to the committee's decision.

Scott Givens, managing director of the bid group San Francisco 2016, hailed Feinstein's involvement in the negotiations as a positive step, but hinted that the damage to the city's Olympic bid may not be reversible.

"That dug a big hole for us to get out of. The Niners dealt a big blow by the manner they did this," Givens said.

Givens said San Francisco 2016 will decide by Monday whether to continue or pull the plug on the Olympic bid.

"We can't let this linger for too long," he said. "If we can come up with a viable option the USOC deems appropriate, we should proceed with great haste.''

Still, exactly what future discussions between San Francisco officials and the 49ers will entail and whether city leaders can succeed in keeping the team at the bargaining table remain to be seen.

"I'm as resolved as everyone else to try to keep the team here," Newsom said. "But not at all costs. We're not going to sell our soul ... this city is not going to mortgage its future for billionaires. We don't do that."

Coach Bill Walsh Has Leukemia - SJ Mercury News

This sheds light on what I wrote about after the Titans Breakfast just over a month ago, when I reported that Coach Walsh was not well.

Bill Walsh tells selected media members that he has leukemia
By Daniel Brown

San Jose Mercury News

(MCT)

Bill Walsh kept his illness from the public as long as he could. But his players all knew. They called and wrote and showed up at his doorstep, doing whatever they could to help the former 49ers coach battle leukemia.

Roger Craig, a star running back in Walsh's innovative offense, visited the coach's home three weeks ago.

"He was laughing, cracking jokes. That's Bill. He's upbeat," Craig said Friday. "This is a serious thing he has, but he's been dealing with it. He's a fighter."

Walsh, who turns 75 on Nov. 30, disclosed his fight to the rest of the world Friday, not with a news conference but with the more personal touch of calling two sportswriters, Ira Miller and Lowell Cohn, who had covered him for decades. The Hall of Fame coach told them that treatment has helped him bounce back from a recent stretch in which his condition looked grave.

"When it was life-threatening, I had a lot of considerations about my wife, Geri," Walsh told Miller, a contributor to mercurynews.com, in comments posted Friday. "It appears I've gone through that threshold and it may turn out OK, at least for a while."

Walsh coached the 49ers from 1979 to 1988, winning their first three Super Bowl championships and leaving behind a framework for two more titles.

He last worked for the team in an official capacity in 2003 but has kept his hand in the organization with behind-the-scenes support for Coach Mike Nolan.

The two talk frequently by phone, since Walsh's leukemia has kept him at his Woodside home for long stretches. The coach's treatment has included a series of blood transfusions, which left him exhausted.

"Bill means a lot to me," Nolan said after the team's practice Friday. "He's a huge supporter of what we're doing here.

"But it's not just us. Everybody across the NFL - everybody - has been affected by Bill Walsh and the things he created. You're talking right down to the practice schedules and your everyday itinerary. When I worked in Baltimore, everything Brian Billick did there as coach was because he learned it while working for Bill Walsh."

Last week, though, there was no phone call with Nolan.

Walsh has been increasingly elusive as rumors about his condition spread, staying away from his office at Stanford, where he is a special assistant to the athletic director, and leaving messages unreturned.

"News about me has been circulating," Walsh said. "The media has been aware of the possibility of this and has refrained from writing. There are too many people following the progress of this. I felt it was appropriate to confirm what's happening."

Walsh said the first indication of the disease came in 2004, when doctors wanted to see why he was anemic. A test of his bone marrow revealed leukemia, a cancer of the blood cells that weakens the body's ability to fight off infections. It was unclear Friday what form of the disease Walsh is battling.

Walsh was absent Sunday at Monster Park for Alumni Day, which featured Joe Montana and Clark's recreation of "The Catch." But a friend of Walsh told the San Jose Mercury News this week that the coach plans to be on hand for Jerry Rice's retirement ceremony Nov.19.

"The worst phase was three to four weeks ago," Walsh said. "I've come back dramatically since, and I'm better."

In fact, he was feeling well enough this weekend to plan on attending a volleyball game at Stanford.

"He taught me all those years to be an optimist, and he'll beat it," said Ken Margerum, a San Jose State assistant coach whom Walsh recruited to play at Stanford in 1977.

Tom Williams, the Spartans co-defensive coordinator, said: "Certainly when you find out a giant...has an illness, you are touched with your own mortality because he is larger than life. He's a giant."

Walsh had two coaching stints at Stanford and recently spent seven months as the Cardinal's acting athletic director.

But his greatest fame came with the 49ers, where his West Coast offense propelled Montana, Jerry Rice and Steve Young and became the most widely copied blueprint in the history of the NFL. Walsh went 102-63-1 and won six division titles before abruptly retiring after winning the 1989 Super Bowl.

"Together, we changed the game," said Craig, who under Walsh became the first running back to have 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season. "Bill Walsh has touched not just people all over the NFL but all over the world. This man is much larger than football - trust me."

Miller wrote that more than 100 former players have called Walsh, including Montana, who recently met the coach for breakfast. Craig made the trip to Walsh's home with Arizona Cardinals Coach Denny Green and former 49ers receiver Mike Wilson.

Former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo and former president Carmen Policy came over for lunch - with DeBartolo making the trip from Tampa.

"We talked about the old times and laughed and teased each other," Walsh told Miller. "I felt flattered Eddie would come all that way to see me."

Despite the illness, Walsh has done his best to stay active. He served on the search committee at his alma mater, San Jose State, when it landed Tom Bowen as the new athletic director in 2004.

"This is something that comes unexpectedly," Bowen said, "but hopefully he will pull through this and make a full recovery."

Walsh was a member of the boxing team at San Jose State and had aspirations of becoming a professional heavyweight before choosing a career in football. Still, most of his friends used the same phrase - "He's a fighter" - when reached for reaction.

Walsh, in speaking of his prognosis, said: "I'm positive but not evangelistic. I'm pragmatically doing everything my physicians recommend, and I'm working my way through it. I always felt I'll accept my fate as it unfolds."

He added: "If we continue with the ongoing treatment, the future could look very bright."

SF 49ERS Say They're Moving To Santa Clara - An Excercize In Bad Politics and PR

Yesterday, San Francisco 49ers Owner John York shocked the football world by announcing that his organization's backup plan to build a stadium in Santa Clara. They caught San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom by suprise. They threw Santa Clara's mayor Patricia Mahan for a total loop as well. In this the 49ers showed a penchant for bad politics and terrible public relations.

First, regardless of some glaring technical issues with the stadium proposal, everyone I knew was excited about the plans for the new facility at Candlestick Point, and how it would be a key part of the San Francisco Bay Area Olympics Bid. It seemed the responsible and brave act for the 49ers to make their stadium proposal part of the Olympics Bid.

But in one fell swoop, John York has done what he seems very good at doing: upsetting both elected officials and the community. As of this moment, the 69.4 percent of the readers of "DumpYork.com" have rated him the worst owner in the NFL. In an election, such a percentage would be called a landslide of massive proportions. York has angered fans with the way he runs the team -- cheap. He didn't initially handle the famous Videogate scandal well. And now he's pissed off the very elected officials he's supposed to work with.

This is not the way to get a stadium built.

In my experience, a normal developer woos elected officials, puts the legal amount of money in their campaign war chest, and even hosts a fund-raiser or two. But Dr. York has done none of this. Instead, he's acted like the kid who has the basketball everyone wants to play with. When things don't go his way, he gets up and walks off.

But here Dr. York's playing with grown ups, and dangerously thinking that he can just piss off elected officials. As much as politicians are put-down and picked-on, they do serve as the guardians of our government, and should not be taken lightly, but Dr. York does by his actions. He's had a number of people working on proposals and poor San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom meeting with Olympics officials and running around the World touting San Francisco as the best place for the Olympics. He's had Lennar's Kofi Bonner -- formerly a Bay Area municipal official of high regard -- negotiating with representatives of several jurisdictions which have a hand in the Candlestick Point recreation area

Now, York threatens to scuttle all of the work of these good folks. Moreover, he's got no deal with Santa Clara and is playing with the most dangerous fire of all: the Santa Clara City Council.

City Council's are where the rubber meets the road of politics in a city. They have to decide how the roads get fixed and the schools get books. Dr. York has to first create a plan and then pass the plan to the council and then make sure they pass it.

But John's done no political work down there and doesn't even know the players. He's not contributed to their campaigns or really done any wooing of them, much less meeting them. He's in a real pickle and it's one he's created for himself.

The best way out of this is for John to stop what he's doing, meet with Gavin, appologize, and get back on track. Yes, he will further upset the leaders in Santa Clara, who feel like they're being used to begin with and are currently placed in the position of indirectly spoiling the Bay Area's Olympics Bid by working with the 49ers, but let's face it. Santa Clara will not bite on that big chunk of a stadium cost when they realize they may have to be the fiscal backer of whatever "private" deal York's people come up with. That deal will almost certanly approach $1 billion.

Plus, York doens't have Kofi Bonner to help him down there.

Something bad happened behind the scenes for this to unravel and the man who best knows what happened isn't talking: Kofi Bonner. I can see the Candlestick Plan as having Kofi's signature of urban planning all over it. Knowing Kofi since 1986, my guess is that he tried to smooth over a misunderstanding and it went South.



What I mean is that it was Kofi's working with the architects and land planners in his role of Senior Vice President of Urban Land with Lennar that created the 10,000 square - foot parking lot that the 49ers complained about. But Lennar needs the land that would be used for parking for the housing. Plus, having the housing's a key part of the stadium financing plan. So I don't know why John would be so hard headed, but apparently he was not only that, but a bit angry.

John, go back to Gavin and make peace; and buy Kofi dinner and a nice Gin and Tonic. Forget Santa Clara; it's not going to work.