Santa Clara election pits 49ers against rival NFL owner in Silicon Valley turf war
The race for mayor of Santa Clara has suddenly turned into a high-stakes political duel between rival NFL owners, with the city’s future in the balance.
San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York finds himself facing a new opponent in the Silicon Valley city of less than 130,000, after companies owned by Miami Dolphins Chairman Stephen Ross contributed $100,000 on Sept. 14 to an independent committee backing Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor’s re-election campaign. The 49ers initially contributed more than $368,000 to an independent committee supporting Anthony Becker, the City Council member challenging Gillmor in the mayor’s race.
Ross’ interest in the city stems from Related Santa Clara, his company’s $8 billion project in the shadow of Levi’s Stadium. Related Companies, an international real-estate development firm, plans to create more than 9 million square feet of offices, housing, hotels and retail on 240 acres, including land across Tasman Drive from the stadium.
It’s extraordinarily uncommon for NFL owners to battle over a suburban mayor’s race, much less pour money into one. But with Related’s plans to develop the area near Levi’s Stadium, and the 49ers’ cultivation of City Council allies eager to purge critics of the team’s management of the stadium, two NFL billionaires are on opposite sides of this year’s election in Santa Clara.
Wednesday’s donations — one for $75,000 from Related Santa Clara LLC and one for $25,000 from Related California Residential LLC — came less than two weeks after the 49ers made their contribution to the committee supporting Becker’s run for mayor. Becker led the effort to settle contentious lawsuits between the city and team, in which Santa Clara accused the 49ers of diverting stadium revenue at the publicly owned facility.
“We can confirm Related Santa Clara and Related California have formed an independent expenditure committee to support the re-election of Mayor Lisa Gillmor,” said Evette Davis, spokesperson for the committee.
Gillmor declined to comment to The Chronicle on the donation to the committee.
Ross, 82, is a tax lawyer and the chairman and founder of Related. The company, based in New York, says it has more than $60 billion in real estate assets worldwide. It specializes in huge mixed-use projects combining housing and commercial properties.
Ross considers Gillmor, who also is vice president of a real estate company her father founded, as an ally in Santa Clara. She was an early supporter of Related’s project and helped steer it to unanimous City Council approval in June 2016.
York holds a decidedly different opinion of the mayor. His enmity traces to the 49ers’ efforts to land a Levi’s Stadium rent reduction of more than $4 million a year — Gillmor fought the 2016 request and the city won in arbitration.
Three years later, Gillmor and the City Council terminated the team’s agreement to manage the stadium, sparking back-and-forth lawsuits. York and the 49ers, through a team spokesperson, routinely vilify Gillmor in the media.
Ross invested in the Dolphins in 2008 and gained complete control in 2009, paying about $1 billion to previous owner Wayne Huizenga. This month, Forbes estimated Ross’ net worth at $11.6 billion.
York, 42, has been the 49ers’ chief executive officer since 2010. His parents, Denise DeBartolo York and John York, are the team’s co-chairs; Forbes put the net worth of DeBartolo York and her family at $5.1 billion.
Even so, this is not the first time Ross has become financially involved in the city’s politics. He made two contributions totaling $70,000 to the city police union’s political action committee (which supported Gillmor) in 2020, the same year York donated $2.9 million to committees backing four City Council candidates, three of whom were elected.
More than a year earlier, in a May 2019 news release announcing the Related project, Ross said, “Mayor Gillmor and the City of Santa Clara have shown bold foresight and have been tremendous partners in shaping a plan for the future growth of Santa Clara.”
The development is essentially a partnership with the city, because Santa Clara still owns the land (mostly a former golf course) where Related will build.
York and Ross are not considered especially tight in NFL owners’ circles. They have little history of direct competition, though the Dolphins and 49ers tussled over then-Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh in 2011. Ross flew to the Bay Area on his private jet for a face-to-face meeting with Harbaugh, trying to woo him to Miami. But Ross lost out to York, who hired Harbaugh to take over the 49ers. He left for the University of Michigan (his and Ross’ alma mater) in December 2014.
Ross is the single biggest donor in Michigan history, according to the school’s website, with at least $350 million in donations. Michigan named its business school after Ross in 2004, when he made his first $100 million gift.
The Dolphins have enjoyed little success with Ross as owner. They have made the playoffs only once since he took over in ’09, losing to Pittsburgh in the wild-card round after the 2016 season.
Last year, former Miami head coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit accusing Ross of offering him $100,000 for every game the team lost during the 2019 season — a “tanking” strategy aimed at improving the team’s draft position.
Flores said Ross also pressured him to recruit a star quarterback in violation of the NFL’s tampering rules. Flores said he was discriminated against because he is Black and fired for resisting Ross’ improper schemes.
After an investigation, the NFL fined Ross $1.5 million and suspended him for more than two months, saying his efforts to bring quarterback Tom Brady and former Saints head coach Sean Payton to the Dolphins violated league rules. The team also forfeited two draft picks. But the NFL said it found no evidence the Dolphins deliberately lost games.
As a political donor, Ross tilts Republican, records show: Since 2017, he has given more than $1 million to elect GOP candidates to Congress. But Related’s California subsidiary gives to Democrats, including $50,000 last year to oppose the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Ross’ latest political contribution, to the committee backing Gillmor, comes as construction work on the Related project swings into gear.
Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana was the first developer to propose a project on property surrounding Levi’s Stadium. In 2013, while the stadium was still under construction, Montana said he hoped to build a hotel and entertainment complex on 9 acres near the stadium’s entrance.
The 49ers themselves did not pursue a stadium-related development; instead, they pushed a controversial plan to buy a city-owned youth soccer park adjacent to the stadium to use for parking. The city refused to sell.
Then, in about 2015, Related California pitched the idea of a huge mixed-use project on 240 acres surrounding the stadium, including a city-owned golf course and other property that once was a garbage dump.
The project was the biggest ever proposed in Silicon Valley, critics said — 5.7 million square feet of offices, nearly 1,700 apartment units and an additional million square feet of restaurants, shops and hotels, the company said. City officials have said they expect the development to generate nearly $17 million annually in taxes, fees and lease revenue.
Environmentalists warned that building atop a landfill posed health hazards to future residents. The city of San Jose sued to stop the project, saying it would create 25,000 jobs but housing for only a fraction of those employees. Santa Clara prevailed in court, and the City Council approved the project in 2016.
Groundbreaking was delayed by the pandemic, but work now is under way.
Perhaps the most ambitious of Related’s developments is the $25 billion Hudson Yards project on Manhattan’s West Side. The company says it will be the largest real estate development in U.S. history. In addition to the Santa Clara project, Related has another multibillion-dollar development in Chicago.
Related Santa Clara will unfold amid ongoing hostility between the 49ers and Gillmor. The city officially accepted the team’s settlement proposal on Aug. 31, the day after Becker allegedly ranted at his peers in a closed session and cursed at Kathy Watanabe, a fellow council member. Gillmor and Watanabe are longtime 49ers critics and fought the team’s efforts to settle the lawsuits.
On Sept. 1, the same day the 49ers contributed to the committee backing Becker, they also gave more than $380,000 to two committees supporting pro-49ers Council Members Karen Hardy and Raj Chahal, who both are running for re-election. That means the team donated nearly $750,000 in all to the three council members who pushed for the settlement and are running for office in November.
Two years ago, York’s uncommonly large contribution to the City Council races helped Becker, Chahal and Sudhanshu “Suds” Jain win seats, creating a 49ers-friendly majority.
That majority has held regular meetings with team officials over the past two years, according to calendars filed with the city. The council also has given the 49ers what they sought on several stadium-related issues, public records show.
Ron Kroichick is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer, and Lance Williams is a freelance writer. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @ronkroichick, @LanceWCIR
