After years of secrecy about the finances of hosting the World Cup at Levi’s Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers have pledged their football operations revenues to guarantee Santa Clara taxpayers won’t absorb multimillion-dollar losses on the event. Until now, financial information about next year’s six World Cup matches largely has been shielded from public view, with even City Council members denied access to key documents unless they sign a non-disclosure agreement.
The World Cup also has been roiled by conflict-of-interest allegations against 49ers President Al Guido. He negotiated Santa Clara’s deal with FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, on behalf of both the publicly owned stadium and the Bay Area Host Committee, the 49ers-founded nonprofit hosting the matches. The 49ers’ offer of a guarantee against city losses, described at a City Council work session last month by team general counsel Jihad F. Beauchman, also seeks to address another concern: that the World Cup could violate Measure J, a city law prohibiting use of public funds to underwrite Levi’s Stadium events.
City Attorney Glen Googins has said the World Cup matches in Santa Clara will cost as much as $50 million to stage. Under terms of an agreement awaiting City Council approval, the host committee would repay all of the city’s costs for the event; in exchange, the nonprofit would get the approximately $13 million FIFA will pay to use the stadium.
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The problem, contended 49ers critic and former City Attorney Brian Doyle, is the host committee “has no assets.” Its most recent IRS filing, from 2023, showed it had about $80,000 in the bank. If the nonprofit’s fundraising falls short, Doyle said, taxpayers will be left holding the bag. The 49ers’ guarantee appears to address that problem, depending on the wording of the document. A city staff report specified the team agreed to cover “approved costs,” which concerns Mayor Lisa Gillmor.
“We’re talking about a high-risk situation for the city,” Gillmor said. “As I said at the council meeting, the devil is in the details. The team has agreed to cover ‘approved costs,’ but they (the host committee) are the ones who approve the costs.” The 49ers view the deal as good for the city, spokesperson Brian Brokaw wrote in an email to the Chronicle.
“Hosting the World Cup will have a huge economic benefit for Santa Clara,” he said, “and we believe the city has secured the best arrangement of any host city in the country.” Host committee President Zaileen Janmohamed described the deal as a “no-risk, all-reward agreement” for the city. In a statement, she said she was confident about raising the needed funds.
The City Council, controlled by officials elected with the aid of millions in campaign donations from the 49ers, is scheduled to take up the issue at its Jan. 28 meeting. Googins, the city attorney, said he would provide the 49ers’ guarantee document to the council before that meeting. Gillmor said she has not yet seen agreements for the World Cup or next year’s Super Bowl (scheduled for Levi’s in February 2026). In contrast, she said that she and other council members had the agreements for Super Bowl 50 three years ahead of that event in February 2016.
“The public is in the dark, and so am I,” Gillmor said of the World Cup deal. Beauchman, the 49ers’ counsel, said the source of the guarantee money is an LLC he referred to as “TeamCo,” the entity in charge of “operation of our football team.” A recent study by Forbes magazine, based on 2023 data, said the 49ers are the 17th most profitable sports franchise in the world, with operating income of $144 million per year. (The Dallas Cowboys ranked first, with profits of $564 million.) How much of that profit might be soaked up by World Cup expenses depends on two unknowns – the actual overall cost of the tournament, and the success of the host committee’s fundraising.
At the work session, City Manager Jovan Grogan said the $50 million figure represents only Santa Clara’s share of World Cup costs, saying the overall cost would be higher. The World Cup is a regional event, and “the Bay Area Host Committee is going to bear costs throughout the Bay Area,” he told the council, without providing a cost estimate for the region. Estimates from other North American World Cup cities vary widely. New Jersey expects to spend $100 million for the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium, according to a local congressman; Toronto officials have estimated their World Cup expenses at about $279 million; the states of Kansas and Missouri expect to spend $60 million on the Kansas City, Mo., matches, according to news accounts.
The Bay Area Host Committee has declined to reveal its fundraising goal. Janmohamed recently told a state senate panel the nonprofit needs an unspecified amount of federal, state and “local support.” In her statement to the Chronicle, she said the committee was partnering with its Los Angeles counterpart in a quest for state funds, and with organizing groups in other World Cup cities to pursue federal money.
Googins told the council he would not take any action in connection with the conflict-of-interest allegations concerning Guido and the World Cup negotiations. Critics contended that Guido’s multiple roles in crafting the agreements with FIFA created a financial conflict of interest that was illegal under state law, voiding the deal.
