Candlestick name could generate city funds
By: John Upton
Examiner Staff Writer
October 28, 2009
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| What’s in a name? If approved, Proposition C would allow the sale of naming rights to Candlestick Park. (Getty Images) |
SAN FRANCISCO — The idea of selling the naming rights to Candlestick Park in order to raise money for The City will be decided by voters Nov. 3.
Proposition C, if approved, would allow the 49ers, who are leasing the city-owned site at least through 2013, to sell the naming rights to the stadium.
The Recreation and Park Department would be a beneficiary of the legislation. The proposition establishes a city policy that half of any revenues taken in by San Francisco be directed to fund directors at recreation centers.
Selling the naming rights of the stadium has been done in the past.
The Rec and Park Department’s share of naming rights at the park was worth $700,000 a year until voters in 2004 passed Proposition H, a local measure that required Monster Park to be renamed back to Candlestick Park. The name of the stadium reverted when the deal with Monster Cable expired in 2008.
The stadium was named 3Com Park in the 1990s and early this decade.
Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who led the charge to place Proposition C on the ballot, has said that allowing the sale of naming rights could help keep the 49ers playing in San Francisco.
jupton@sfexaminer.com
