HoB Discusses Santa Clara Site

The San Francisco 49ers and House of Blues are discussing an HoB-operated concert hall in Santa Clara County, Calif., although the financing of such a project hasn’t been established, and previous HoB efforts were quashed by county supervisors months ago.

Supervisors balked at plans to build the 7,000-seat hall at the county fairgrounds when word got out that the project would require $15 million in public funds, voting 3-2 to pull the plug on the venue in August.

Along with the public funding issues, the city of San Jose sued the county over the project because it wanted to build a downtown facility, possibly in partnership with the San Jose Sharks hockey team, which operates the HP Pavilion.

This time officials have a new location in mind – next to the Great America amusement park and the proposed location for a new team stadium.

Chief financial officer for the 49ers Larry MacNeil has spoken with HoB developers, spokeswoman for the 49ers Lisa Lang told the San Jose Mercury News. The two sides like each other’s ideas but haven’t discussed a formal relationship yet as “we’re focused on doing our stadium,” she said.

“We are always open to opportunities to expand the House of Blues venue portfolio, and the Santa Clara project is certainly an interesting one,” Live Nation spokesman John Vlautin told Pollstar. “The talks, however, are only in the very preliminary stages”

City leaders still have ideas of a downtown theater and even commissioned a study earlier this year that found the county’s demographics would support a midsize hall, the Mercury News reported.