Despite voting on May 13, 2025, to sign a contract with Fanatics for merchandising at non-NFL events at Levi’s Stadium, the Santa Clara Stadium Authority (SCSA) is still without a deal. The deal has been “suspended” according to the city, when, less than a week after the vote, a potential conflict of interest was raised.
The NFL has held an ownership interest in Fanatics since 2017. While the 49ers’ legal team believes that this is not a conflict of interest, the city is still doing its own analysis. The issue was brought to the Stadium Authority Board less than a week after the vote that approved the merchandising deal, and on May 27, the Stadium Authority Board directed city staff to conduct its own analysis. City staff is still preparing its report for the Stadium Authority Board.
Meantime, the Forty Niners Stadium Management Company LLC (ManCo) is in a holding pattern.
“Though the Fanatics contract represents the best financial outcome for the SCSA, we will wait for official guidance from the SCSA and implement as directed,” a spokesperson for the 49ers told The Weekly.
What’s perhaps most interesting about this issue is not whether Fanatics is the sticking point, but rather the contract itself. Up until this year, there was no contract, but merchandise was still sold at non-stadium events by Fanatics, and money still went into the SCSA account. There were simply no rules in place or no contract holding anyone to any rules.
Instead, there appeared to be a gentleman’s agreement. While the team was not required to, the 49ers closed its team store, so there was no direct competition with the concourse-level sales during non-NFL events. Profit from team store sales would have gone to the 49ers, while profits from concourse-level sales would have benefited SCSA.
At the same time, without a specific contract in place with Fanatics, the Santa Clara Stadium Authority had the option of choosing which vendor it wanted to operate the concourse-level merchandise booths. Until this dispute, Fanatics was running those concourse-level sales.
Because of the most recent dispute, a third-party vendor has operated non-NFL event sales. The 49ers have continued to close the team store during non-NFL events.
Other than that, there seem to have been no changes.
Suds Jain pulling this item gave Mayor Gillmor the narrative and ammo she needed. Suds stop feeding Gillmor.
This contract was pretty straightforward and then the typical Gillmor Conflicts of interest crap starts up again. Ever notice it is always disgraced former City Attorney Brian Doyle and Gillmor always bringing up the conflicts. The only real conflicts of interest are Mayor Gillmor running this city.
Someone needs to start a Roger Fan Club, I’m loving the Roger comments or better still a SVV page for Roger