San Francisco supervisors clash over Super Bowl money

Carolyn Tyler Image
ByCarolyn Tyler KGO logo
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
San Francisco supervisors clash on Super Bowl plan
The Chamber of Commerce blasted a proposal from Supervisor Jane Kim to make the Super Bowl host committee pay for city services.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Santa Clara's Super Bowl deal is one some San Francisco supervisors want to emulate. They want the host committee to pay for city services, as they're doing in the South Bay. Tuesday, that idea was blasted by the Chamber of Commerce. They called it "disastrous legislation."

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As Super Bowl city continues to rise, so do the tensions between some San Francisco business leaders and some city lawmakers.

"Only in San Francisco do we look a gift horse in the mouth," Jim Lazarus from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce said.

The Chamber of Commerce is one of the groups outraged that Supervisor Jane Kim introduced a resolution asking the mayor to renegotiate the deal that leaves city taxpayers shelling out at least $5 million.

"This doesn't mean we don't want them to have the parties here. We just want them to pick up the tab," Kim said.

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But the chamber points to a 2012 resolution where the supervisors supported the Super Bowl bid, and accuses Kim of political grand standing because she's running for state office.

"To show that somehow she is a watchdog of the public purse, when in fact, all she's potentially do is cost the city money," Lazarus said.

"There's nothing in this resolution that says we'll pay for the party," Kim said.

At the supervisors meeting the mayor was asked who negotiated the deal, but instead choose to focus on the economic benefit to the city.

One small business that will definitely benefit is Yvonne's Southern Sweets in the Bayview. Yvonne Hines won a piece of the Super Bowl pie - a contract to provide snack packs for the thousands of media.

"They're going to get a piece of my pie, my cookies, my pralines and a gingerbread football," Hines said.

She says it's been a sweet journey. Not spoiled by the bitter controversy over Super Bowl money.

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Click here for full coverage of Super Bowl 50, and click here to download the ABC7/Waze app to help navigate around the Super Bowl City construction.