The team is raising ticket prices on a select group of fans, many of whom have been season ticket holders for decades.
This will affect roughly 2,000 seats. They are called platinum level seats, right around the 50 yard line.
These seats will jump 52 percent in pricing from $98 to $149 per game.
The 49ers response is that ticket pricing for most of the stadium remains flat with minor increases.
However, that does little to calm fans like Paul Kemp of San Jose, whose been going to 49er games since 1957.
"If it was a true franchise, should they raise the ticket prices? Sure, but not 52 percent in one year, not in this economy, that just leaves a bad taste in everybody's mouth. If they were going to do it $20, probably people wouldn't have said anything, but there's something when you raise it over 50 percent it gets people upset because there's no reason to do it. And they picked on their most loyal fans," says Kemp.
Even if you put aside the bad economy, put aside the fact that the 49ers have not made the playoffs since 2002 in a lousy stadium, this is a team that is trying to build a new stadium and has a ballot initiative coming up in Santa Clara.
Is this really the message you want to send right now to your best fans? What are you thinking?
