Santa Clara-49ers willing to work out Levi's Stadium differences
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KTVU) - The battle over costs and curfew related to Levi's Stadium pitting the 49ers against Santa Clara city officials appears to be heading towards a time out. Both sides say they'd like to resolve their differences.
A representative from the independent audit firm, Harvey M. Rose, hired by the city, answered questions about its findings with the Levi's Stadium Authority, which is made up of the mayor, vice mayor and city council members.
The audit found that the 49ers owed close to $114,781, a lot less than the initial estimate of $2 million .
The city paid $200,000 for the audit.
"Our auditor admitted that that is not a substantiated number. I'm perplexed too and disappointed," said Dominic Caserta, the Vice Mayor of Santa Clara.
City officials learned that even the lower amount may not be accurate. Vice Mayor Caserta says city staff found that the 49ers may only owe $20,000 to $25,000 and that the team hasn't been billed yet.
The 49ers team president says it has paid every bill.
"If there are bills to be paid, I asked them to send them to us and we'll happily pay them," says Al Guido, the 49ers team president," We believe we should move the ball forward, to take a football analogy."
Moving the ball forward for the 49ers means getting a later curfew for weeknight concerts at the stadium.
Currently, there is a 10 p.m. curfew for weeknight concerts.
In May, U2 ignored the curfew. Coldplay is scheduled to perform October 4, a Wednesday night. The 49ers want an 11 p.m. curfew.
"There's no stadium in California that doesn't have an 11 p.m. curfew on weeknights. We think it's a big benefit to the city of Santa Clara to host these events. They benefit. They get the lion's share of the revenues from all of these events," says Guido.
"This is a relationship that has been memorialized for the next 35 years. We need to get together and act like adults," says Caserta.
The team president says he's anticipating more than 40,000 people for the Coldplay concert. Both sides hope to reach a curfew compromise soon.