The San Francisco 49ers have had the welcome mat thrown out for them in Santa Clara after 5-2 vote by the city council. Despite the cries from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for the city to use the money for schools and infrastructure, the council moved forward with only one last hurdle to renaming the team the Santa Clara 49ers (I don’t know what they would be called).

I can’t disagree with Newsom, sports and reality TV are probably two of the biggest distractions from education and actual concerns for America but everybody loves the NFL. The decision now falls to the voters of Santa Clara. So with only two curmudgeons on the council voting against the measure, sports took the $80 million over education or anything else. I don’t know if Santa Clara is well off right now, and I’m a blogger not a reporter, so I ain’t looking it up, but I suppose they are banking on sports revenue to make up the difference. Ultimately, for anyone who has lived in Santa Clara County for the last ten years, it’s clear that the population of the Bay Area is shifting to the South.

First came the Sharks, then the NBC affiliate Channel 11, then the Warriors played a season in San Jose when the Coliseum was under repair, now the A’s and 49ers both are trying to get in on it. It is inevitable that one of those teams will make it down here. Just as the Dodgers, Giants and A’s came west in the 50s and 60s, now teams are migrating to the South Bay. Like it or not, teams follow the money.