Super Bowl 50: city departments outline costs, transit changes and labor concerns; unions press for written commitments

City departments told the Land Use & Transportation Committee they had planned expanded transit, policing and cleanup support for Super Bowl 50 events while labor groups and neighborhood advocates urged clearer commitments and mitigation plans.

SFMTA said it would rewrite transit schedules for Jan. 23'Feb. 12 to preserve service and add capacity, and estimated its costs at about $2.3 million: roughly $1.3 million for increased transit service, $700,000 for additional parking-control officers and just under $200,000 for customer communications and outreach.

SFPD said public-safety staffing for the free, public Super Bowl City footprint and related downtown events would range about $1 million to $1.5 million and that the department expects to absorb the cost within its operational budget; private, ticketed and contracted events have separately signed up for 10B officer services that SFPD will bill (the department reported $106,000 of such services signed). Public Works estimated cleaning and maintenance for the event footprints at about $35,000'$40,000 for routine coverage, noting World Series cleanup costs were higher when concentrated in a single-day parade.

Department of Emergency Management said the city's emergency operations center will be active for nine days; the EOC and department operation centers will coordinate across agencies and regional/state/federal partners. DEM confirmed Super Bowl planning and staffing were included in the budget adopted last year.

Committee members asked how the city decides when to charge event organizers for meter-bagging, street closures or additional services. SFMTA said permit and fee decisions are governed by ISCOT (Interdepartmental Committee on Traffic and Transportation) permit schedules and past practice varies: many large free public events do not yield full cost recovery, while ticketed or for-profit events (for example, some Beta Breakers-style races or private concerts) are charged fees including meter-recovery and 10B rates. SFMTA and SFPD said they had requested deposits where vendors have established accounts and expected collections through standard invoicing channels.

Labor groups and trade unions used the hearing to press for written hiring and prevailing-wage commitments for event work. Teamsters and building trades representatives asked the city and host committee to avoid contracts with certain vendors under active labor complaints, citing National Labor Relations Board complaints against a shuttle operator (Bowers) and other contractor scrutiny; security workers also raised concerns about a private security vendor under state investigation. The Office of Economic and Workforce Development said it was working to connect local residents to job opportunities and the host committee reports several hundred job offers and dozens of placements to date for event-related work.

Neighborhood groups asked about noise, street closures, impacts on seniors, access to transit stops and how City Hall operations and evening commission meetings would be affected. Several supervisors said they would pursue a consistent policy on how the city charges for special events going forward. After public comment, Supervisor Kim moved to file the item on behalf of the author and the committee filed it.