The 49ers now have the final $200 million needed to leave San Francisco, their home of 66 years, for a new, long-awaited stadium in Santa Clara.

The National Football League announced Thursday it would give the team $200 million in loans and straight payments for its $1 billion, 68,500-seat facility. Site work began in January on the venue, which could open next to Great America as soon as the 2014 season.

“This means we are fully funded for Santa Clara,” said 49ers CEO Jed York. “We are building a football stadium in Santa Clara.”

Project leaders previously expected $150 million from the NFL. The extra $50 million is more than welcome, said Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews.

“We were only counting on $150 million, but it just goes to show the continued strength and support of the NFL and the owners of the team toward what will be an iconic building,” he said.

The deal fell into place weeks after the five-time Super Bowl champions entered the playoffs for the first time since 2002. Their season ended in a loss to the New York Giants.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee was not willing to concede the team was leaving the city, but his spokeswoman, Christine Falvey, acknowledged what city officials have privately said for years: Santa Clara will have to stumble for 49ers games to stay in San Francisco.

“San Francisco has always said that we have a solid plan B in place,” Falvey said. “San Francisco will always be there.”

A pair of false hopes

Some San Francisco officials, though, had been pinning their hopes largely on two factors: the 49ers not being able to line up financing for the stadium, and the league preferring the cachet of a San Francisco waterfront site over a parking lot next to Great America.

Carmen Policy, the former president of the 49ers who is a paid consultant to get a new stadium built in the Hunters Point Shipyard, said green technology or biotechnology firms could take over that space instead.

“I would think they’d be better off staying in the city,” he said, “but they don’t agree on that, and they put a lot of time, money and political capital into moving. It looks like they are going to get it done.”

The financing agreements, if they hold up, would confirm that belief. The rest of the project will be funded by an $850 million construction loan that Santa Clara approved in December.

Repaying that debt will rely in part on tickets that some longtime season ticket holders have decried as costly. For a spot in the new stadium, fans must pay a one-time fee for the rights to a seat, and club seats range from $20,000 to $80,000 each. Then they must buy the actual tickets, which can cost $325 to $375 per game.

York said those prices apply so far to only 9,000 seats. “There’s definitely going to be affordable seats for everybody in this building,” he said.

Group opposes the deal

The grassroots group Santa Clara Plays Fair hopes to send the financing deal back to voters, arguing residents were not fully informed of the risks when they approved building the stadium in 2010. Santa Clara’s city attorney has said the financial deal cannot be rejected in a vote.

Santa Clara Plays Fair organizers, who have collected the signatures they say validate their petition, now say they are seeking an attorney to represent them.

“It really doesn’t change the fact that Santa Clara’s agency is still on hook for $850 million worth of loans and voters never approved that,” said Deborah Bress, a spokeswoman for the group, of the NFL’s financing.

Chronicle staff writer John Coté contributed to this report. E-mail Stephanie M. Lee at slee@sfchronicle.com.

http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2012/02/03/49ers-stadium-in-santa-clara-now-fully-funded/