California’s state assembly this week passed a bill designed to help the San Francisco 49ers build a new football stadium in Santa Clara.
The bill allows the 49ers to choose a stadium contractor without going through a public bidding process.
The 49ers have argued before that just a select handful of contractors are qualified to build an NFL-quality football stadium.
Small parts of the stadium’s construction funded by taxpayer money would still need to go through the public bidding process, as required by law.
The bill still needs to be approved in the state Senate before it goes to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk.
Designers of the proposed San Francisco 49ers stadium presented what they consider the “next generation” of sports facilities.
Tim Cahill, national design director for HNTB Companies of Kansas City, Missouri, led a 45-minute presentation of the $937 million project proposed to be built on the overflow parking lot of California’s Great America amusement park.
The 68,500-seat open air stadium would likely be ready in time for the 2014 National Football League season.
