Carmen Policy joins city of San Francisco's efforts...

I'm really not sure how this will all play out, but Carmen Policy is back in 49ers business in an abstract sense: He'll be leading the city of San Francisco's efforts to keep the 49ers in town:

Policy was involved in the initial $100 million bond effort a decade ago, so it's certainly fitting that he's back on board with this effort. While Eddie D financed everything, Carmen Policy was the brains of the operation, acting as a de facto consigliere for Debartolo. There was certainly some shadiness when the cap came into affect, but over the course of a decade and a half, Policy helped lead the 49ers to 5 Super Bowl titles.

Now, we get to see what Policy can do strictly on the business end of things. It sounds like he's already worked things out so the league and the York's will be amenable to working with him. It certainly makes sense that he would want that straightened out ahead of time. While time can heal wounds, there was a good deal of bad blood when ownership was transferred to Denise Debartolo-York and John York.

When the South Bay business was first discussed I was not particularly concerned because I just wanted the 49ers staying in the Bay Area. However, if Policy and the mayor's office can get this figured out I would obviously love to see the 49ers stay in San Francisco. The world of stadium building has changed considerably with fewer and fewer handouts, but I think Policy is the type of guy who can make things happen. It's definitely worth keeping track of over the next 9 months as we approach the June 2008 ballot.