Choose an opening line of your own that includes a pun based on a Rolling Stones song, and then keep reading.
The relationship between the 49ers and the City of Santa Clara has not gone smoothly. The latest proof of dysfunction comes from the team’s decision to share with the San Jose Mercury News letters from the Rolling Stones’ tour promoters complaining about last-minute obligations foisted on the band by the city.
“Do you not want touring shows anymore?” John Morrison, site promoter and production manager of the band’s No Filter tour wrote to Levi’s Stadium general manager Jim Mercurio five days after the August 18 show. “The impression I and many others in the industry have, is your facility is getting so restrictive and dysfunctional, it’s no longer worth the effort to play there due to the myriad and random rule changes.”
The band scrapped its pyrotechnics show in response to a mandate from the City, apparently communicated to tour management in the eleventh hour, that there be no fireworks after 10:00 p.m.
The incident has become yet another example of the inability of the 49ers and Santa Clara to get along. 49ers V.P. of public affairs and strategic communications Rahul Chandhok said that the City’s behavior will make it harder to book shows.
“Her actions would have directly harmed concertgoers,” Chandhok told the Mercury News regarding City manager Deanna Santana. “Such stunts may appease Mayor [Lisa] Gillmor, but they continue to harm every Santa Clara resident.”
Santana blamed the 49ers, claiming that they “brought issues very late to the city’s attention.”
“The City has a responsibility to ensure that events comply with building and fire codes, which it did and, it is unfortunate that the [49ers] and Promoters view this regulatory function as excessive or micromanaging,” Santana told the Mercury News.
If the team and the city had a strong working relationship, incidents like this wouldn’t happen. And if/when problems arose, they’d work through them without turning then into a public spectacle. Instead, each side is trying hard to make the other look bad, and the end result each side is successful making everyone look amateurish.
The team and the city would be wise to find a way to set aside their differences. The 49ers’ 40-year lease at the venue still has 35 years to go.
