Venue News & Notes: Santa Clara Favors NFL Stadium

A poll shows most Santa Clara, CA, voters are in favor of a June ballot measure to construct an NFL stadium for the San Francisco 49ers next to the Great America theme park. The Mercury News–KGO-TV poll found that 52% of likely voters plan to back Measure J on June 8. Thirty-six percent are against the measure, while 11% are undecided. The poll conducted by San Jose State University’s Survey and Policy Research Institute. The survey of 614 registered voters took place April 13-15 and has a margin of error of ±3.9 percentage points…

…San Jose, CA, officials have talked of their planned Major League Baseball park as a relative bargain. The city is assembling land near its downtown train station, at a cost of $24 million so far, and plans to lease it to the Oakland A’s, who in turn would build the stadium. In reality, the ballpark project is a more complicated puzzle, involving the taxpayer-funded purchase of not only 12 parcels for the park itself but at least another eight for related road improvements. The total cost for the downtown makeover is now estimated at $72 million — and seems likely to rise by millions more…

…Assembling the complicated puzzle of land for the San Jose ballpark and related road improvements is sure to cost more than the $70 million estimated by officials who tout the project as a major boost to downtown. San Jose’s challenge in many ways is much steeper than that of Santa Clara, which is working to bring the San Francisco 49ers to town. The property eyed for that stadium is a vacant, city-owned lot right off Highway 101. Having to cobble together multiple parcels is forcing San Jose to pay millions to property owners who may see a bonanza in a down market — then spend millions more to improve access…

…Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, KS, made a profit, but the Kansas State High School Activities Association took a loss on the state wrestling championship in February, officials say. The association’s leader said recently that the Class 6A and 5A tournaments will not return because the venue is too expensive. But, on Friday, he said talks with arena operator SMG remain open. “We can’t be closed to any options,” said Gary Musselman, executive director of the association.