Santa Clara's city council is considering pushing the stadium financing plan's deadline back seven months, which would make a November vote impossible. The next likely election is a special election in mid-to-late 2009, in which a much lower turnout would be expected than the upcoming general election. Usually this is good for stadium proponents as they can expect and gear up a greater percentage of turnout from their supporters than their opponents.
Even with that there's still the EIR that has to be completed. While far less complicated than the Cisco Field/baseball village EIR, there's still a year's worth of work there. Proponents still claim that a 2012 opening is still possible, but they're cutting it really close.
One potentially troubling item comes from councilmember and stadium skeptic Jamie Mcleod, who states:
...the 49ers have pledged only to cover cost overruns for one year after the team's 2012 completion target.No big deal if they get it done on time and do some value engineering in the process. Because they might value engineer the first time around, they might use up a lot of that annual stadium improvement fund quickly, lest the 49ers stadium turn into Edward Jones Dome.
