The Santa Clara Stadium Authority Board has just approved its $60.9 million operating and $18.6 million capital budgets for the upcoming fiscal year, with projections that more than $6 million in revenues and rent from Levi’s Stadium will move into the city’s general fund.
The Board, which is made up of members of the Santa Clara City Council, unanimously approved the budget on Tuesday night and denied a request from the San Francisco 49ers to fund a portion of its new office. Councilmember Raj Chahal was absent.
The $18.6 million capital budget includes improvement projects at the stadium like LED retrofitting, bird proofing the escalator canopies and installing a new Levi’s Stadium sign. As part of the budget approval, the board signed off on a $20.6 million debt payment on the stadium — a move that would drop the outstanding debt to $210 million.
Over the last few weeks, Mayor Lisa Gillmor and several other councilmembers have raised concerns about the inclusion of a $620,000 line item to cover partial rent for a new office for the San Francisco 49ers. The NFL team manages the stadium.
The team’s business staff recently moved from the stadium to an office on Great America Parkway in an effort to consolidate all of their employees into one space. Alex Acton, the 49ers’ director of finance, previously told the council that some of those employees are “focused on driving revenue” to the Stadium Authority — the public governing body that oversees Levi’s Stadium.
But city officials recommended that the Stadium Authority decline to cover the cost — and the board agreed.
“They had made the decision, without consultation with Stadium Authority staff, that they are no longer going to use that space for ManCo’s offices and will use other lease space,” City Manager Jovan Grogan said about the 49ers’ management employees who previously worked at the stadium.
A 49ers spokesperson said in a statement that they “believe our new office in Santa Clara will enhance collaboration, efficiency and productivity to the benefit of both the SCSA and the 49ers. We look forward to continuing to work with staff to bring this back to the board for approval.”
The Stadium Authority’s 2025-26 fiscal year budget implements the terms of a recent settlement agreement between the 49ers and the city. The settlement resolved the last two remaining pieces of litigation between the parties over public safety costs and reimbursements for food buffets.
The city is projecting $6.4 million will move into their coffers in the upcoming fiscal year. Santa Clara’s general fund has received on average $3.2 million annually from Levi’s Stadium, according to the budget. The highest amount was in the previous fiscal year at $18.6 million — largely because of the settlement — and the lowest was $390,000 in the 2020-21 fiscal year that saw major impacts due to the pandemic.
The amount paid to the city is calculated through ground rent paid by the 49ers, performance rent based on revenues from non-NFL events and other fees.
Non-NFL event revenue for the upcoming fiscal year is projected to be $5.3 million based on four scheduled concerts and two soccer matches.
“This is the preliminary estimate for non-NFL events and our goal and our hope is that as events continue to be booked, that number will continue to grow,” Kenn Lee, the city’s finance director, told the board.
Revenues from ticket surcharges alone are expected to increase by $2.3 million as the settlement agreement raised the per-ticket fee for non-NFL events from $4 to $8.