Fédération Internationale de Football Association is more often called FIFA. It is perhaps the largest sporting competition in the world. Santa Clara was selected as a host city because our city council submitted a bid, offering Levi’s Stadium as the location.
FIFA was founded in 1904 and has become one of the largest international sporting competitions in the world, with 211 countries participating. Their last visit to the United States was in 1994. So you might consider the United States team playing in Santa Clara a major attraction and a major opportunity for our hospitality businesses.
You might, unless you are Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gilmor.
Gillmor took advantage of every opportunity that centered on herself — greeting teams and delegates at the airport, being in front of the TV cameras. But when it came to leadership in promoting the city and its businesses, and giving tens of thousands of visitors reasons to spend their time and money in town, she seemed happy to kick that ball down the road to San José.
We may have had more enthusiasm for a local Red Cross blood drive.
You would think with the United States team playing right here in Santa Clara, FIFA would rank right up there with the Super Bowl.
Oh, that’s right, nothing was promoted or mentioned about that either.
San Jose held watch parties for tens of thousands. Santa Clara did the opposite. It denied permits for watch parties at local businesses. Because of FIFA’s rules, there could be no signage visible on the stadium. National TV referred to Levi’s as the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium. So a little publicity would have gone a long way in promoting Santa Clara to the world of watching fans.
Now that all the games are over in Santa Clara, the city’s “marketing committee” is sponsoring watch parties. In other words, instead of creating excitement that would keep visitors in town spending money while Santa Clara was in the spotlight, the city is inviting residents to spend their own money at these events after the spotlight has moved on. It’s like having a circus parade after the circus has left town.
The good news is that in a few months we will have a new mayor. Whoever takes the political leadership of our community is going to look pretty good by just doing their job.
From what I can see, Santa Clara has the best story in Silicon Valley. It’s time we had a mayor who will share Santa Clara’s story of multiple successes and doesn’t despise our stadium.
Previous Milestones:
Milestones – Bullet Train to Wealth Tax? – Opinion
Milestones – You Have to Ask Why? – Opinion
Milestones – Welcome to Santa Clara – Opinion
Dear Miles,
Let’s not pretend the script is difficult to read. Queen Lisa still wants control, and Watanabe appears to be the chosen successor. Whatever the official campaign messaging says, many of us suspect the crown has already picked its next mayor.
We watched Spencer Pratt rise from the ashes, only to be consumed by controversy, unanswered questions, and those infamous last-minute ballots. Now, with another election approaching, it feels like we may be getting the sequel nobody asked for.
The Gillmor team seems likely to use one of two familiar strategies: crowd the race with extra candidates to divide the opposition vote, or create a last-minute shake-up that conveniently benefits KW. And, of course, we cannot rule out another batch of mysterious votes suddenly appearing after everyone thought the counting was finished. Apparently, democracy now comes with surprise bonus rounds.
Whether any of these suspicions are ever proven is another matter. But the Gillmor political machine has operated for so long, and with so little transparency, that people are naturally asking what is happening behind the curtain.
One thing is certain: this family is not leaving the political stage anytime soon. At this point, Santa Clara politics is less like public service and more like a long-running family franchise—complete with sequels, plot twists, and a cast that never seems to change.
Is there a tabulation of time and/or appearances “mayor” Gillmor made for the Soccer games at Levis Stadium, or about the City of Santa Clara during the games, or his her hatred still the driving “farce”?
FIFA is an *organization*. The World Cup is the tournament that FIFA organizes, among other responsibilities, and it is the World Cup (not FIFA) that is one of the “largest international sporting competitions in the world”.