SANTA CLARA, Calif. — A shared stadium between the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders has been discussed under the new NFL labor agreement, and executives for both teams said Tuesday they are open to future talks.

A stadium for the Bay Area rivals has long struggled to gain traction. The storied franchises have never agreed on the location of a shared site, among other things, and have explored separate plans with little success.

Jed York, president and CEO of the 49ers, said the team will listen to ideas for a two-team stadium while moving forward with plans for a new facility of its own in Santa Clara.

“We’ve discussed it, but there’s no plans. There’s nothing in the works,” said York, son of team owner John York. “And again, it’s something we remain open to, but it’s got to be the right deal for two teams. There’s nothing that anybody can force to make that happen.”

About the only thing the two franchises can agree on is that both need to replace their aging homes.

The 49ers have played in San Francisco since the franchise was established more than 60 years ago and have called Candlestick Park home since 1971. The Raiders, aside from the hiatus in Los Angeles, have played at the Oakland Coliseum since 1966.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has urged both to work together on a stadium solution similar to that of the New York Giants and Jets, who share the New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

“We have an open mind about the possibility of sharing a stadium and we are discussing that possibility with the 49ers, with whom we have a terrific working relationship,” Raiders CEO Amy Trask said.

Raiders owner Al Davis wants a new stadium on the Coliseum site, and the 49ers – who couldn’t get a plan they wanted to stay in San Francisco – have focused efforts on financing a facility near team headquarters in Santa Clara.

In June 2010, voters in the Silicon Valley city signed off on a plan by the 49ers to build the 68,500-seat stadium. Under the agreement with the team, the city and area hotels would contribute $114 million to the $937 million project next to Great America theme park.

York said the team is still focused “100 percent” on the Santa Clara project. He is hopeful to start construction in 2013 and open the stadium for the 2015 season, although there’s still a major shortfall in cash to get the financing needed.

York said the soon-to-be-ratified, 10-year labor deal has removed the uncertainty and made it easier to secure the sponsors and financial backing for a facility. And under the new agreement, he doesn’t believe the rival teams would be competing for league dollars on a stadium.

“It’s not going to put anybody in competition with each other,” York said. “The way the credits work and how much credit would be available over the next several years, there’s more than enough to accommodate several new stadiums being built, so that’s not going to be an issue.”

___

AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow in Alameda, Calif., contributed to this story.

A new South Bay home for the 49ers gained yardage Tuesday night when Santa Clara selected a sports marketing agency to direct sales of personal seat licenses that would help fund the proposed stadium, estimated to cost nearly $1 billion and be open for the 2015 season.

The Santa Clara Stadium Authority picked Legends Premium Sales to coordinate sales of the seat licenses, a type of fan investment considered pivotal in bringing the project to fruition. The licenses are set to go on sale in January.

Also, the 49ers announced that luxury boxes valued at $138 million have been sold. Although the team won’t say how many boxes that comprises, a total of 165 are planned for the stadium.

Along with $79 million in public money approved by voters and $35 million from a room tax on area hotels, $250 million reportedly has been secured. But the project still faces uncertainties.

Questions surrounding the statewide elimination of redevelopment agencies once had critics kvetching that the stadium was dead in the water because it wouldn’t obtain a planned $40 million. But Santa Clara spokesman Dan Beerman said the full voter-approved funding is secured, whether or not the city’s Redevelopment Agency survives.

Santa Clara is planning a parking garage dedication today and also hopes to build a luxury hotel backed by former Niners quarterback Joe Montana and ex-owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr.

As far as the rest of the money, a city term sheet with the 49ers states that Santa Clara would not be responsible for cost overruns.

“The bottom line here is, if it’s going to cost a billion dollars, there has got to be a billion dollars,” Beerman said.

San Francisco officials said the door is still open for a 49ers future at Candlestick Point given the standing $100 million commitment from homebuilder Lennar to help fund a new stadium near its planned development of 10,000 new homes at Hunters Point.

“We’ve got a great entitled project ready to go for them,” said Rich Hillis, a deputy director in the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

Also Tuesday, the Santa Clara Stadium Authority chose to continue a food and hospitality contract with Centerplate, the current provider of services at Candlestick Park. In preparation for the $500 million in construction work, the authority approved a procurement process for contractors, which Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews said would provide a boost for the local job economy and begin in the fall.

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com

Sources: 49ers, Santa Clara

By SportsDirect

Eric Branch of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat has the details.

The short version: The 49ers confirmed receipt of an NFL memo asking them to tone down public comments regarding their own players without contracts for 2011.

Coach Jim Harbaugh alluded to the memo during an interview last week. Even Harbaugh would have to admit that his frequent public praise for Smith was a little conspicuous.

We all know Smith plans to sign a contract with the 49ers once the signing period opens. There’s no need to dot every “i” with a little heart.

This bromance can wait til training camp.

Even though the San Francisco 49ers’ long-term goal is to play football at a new stadium in Santa Clara, the team has renewed its lease for the next four years to continue playing at Candlestick Park.

The news isn’t a surprise, since the NFL team has to play somewhere. The planned $937 million stadium in Santa Clara isn’t expected to be built and ready to play in until at least 2015, said team spokeswoman Lisa Lang.

According to the terms of the tentative agreement reached this week, the lease extension is good through 2014. But the Niners would have the option for a series of one-year extensions after that until 2023.

“But our target date to be in Santa Clara is 2015,” Lang said.

Under terms of the extension, the team will also get credit for millions of dollars in repairs to the aging San Francisco stadium, according to Lang.

About six months ago, the team had filed a claim against the stadium’s landlord — the city and county of San Francisco — complaining that millions of dollars of repairs needed to be done to fix up the stadium and the parking lot.

Under the new tentative lease, the team will get rent credit for completing $6.5 million in lapsed maintenance work over the next two years that the city was obligated to fix, such as repairing the parking lot, replacing seats and fixing leaks in luxury suites, Lang said. The team will get an additional $4 million to $6 million in either rent reduction or credit,

too.

The Parks and Recreation Department and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors still need to approve the deal.

The renewal of the lease gave outgoing San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is heading to the lieutenant governor’s office, a chance to tell talk show host Ronn Owens on KGO radio that “if something goes wrong in Santa Clara,” that gives his city a good leg up in offering the NFL a “two-team stadium in Hunter’s Point.”

Newsom said he didn’t begrudge the team or Santa Clara, but he did openly state that he wished the Niners would stay in San Francisco.

Lang said while “it’s not a done deal,” she said she feels “confident” the team will be heading south in five years.

Contact Lisa Fernandez at 408-920-5002.