Santa Clara Group Petitions To Block 49ers Stadium Construction

SANTA CLARA (KCBS) -- The anti-stadium group 'Santa Clara Plays Fair' is holding a weekend-long signature gathering drive to revoke the city's plans to take out a $850 million construction loan to build the 49ers stadium.

The group wants to put a referendum on the ballot and is complaining that the loan information was never disclosed on the June 2010 ballot when Santa Clara voters approved the stadium.

But stadium supporters are fighting back.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 332 put out a call on their website, looking to save the stadium.

KCBS' Betsy Gebhart Reports:

According to the site they released the following statement:

"We have been asked by the 49ers to generate individuals to act as interceptors in an effort to derail a ballot referendum."

Deborah Bress, a spokeswoman from Santa Clara Plays Fair, compared the situation to David vs. Goliath.

"We just found out that the 49ers are paying, yet again, to have our voices silenced by contacting the IBEW," Bress continued to accuse the 49ers of trying to block her group's right to collect signatures.

IBEW Local 332 Business Manager Gerald Pfieffer pulled back from the website statement's language.

"We were just trying to generate interest and we probably used language that shouldn't have been used," he said.

Pfieffer said the 49ers never contacted the union, but that its members will be out and about Saturday "peacefully" leafleting in favor of the stadium at the petitioning sites.

The union members will be paid through a union fund.

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