The stadium is done.
But the work -- as in the work on and in Levi's Stadium for minority-owned firms -- is just beginning.
Smarting from their excoriation by civil rights groups for not hiring minority-owned construction firms to build the $1.2 billion Levi's Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers -- "embarassed" by the outcry, the San Jose Mercury News reported -- now say that they're ahead of the pack in hiring "minority firms."
"Major vendors" dealing in food, parking services, sanitation and more were all instructed by the team to go out and find small firms owned by minorities -- and so they did, the newspaper reported.
About 22 percent of contracts in effect while the stadium is opened will go to these firms.
The 49ers' "turnabout" comes in the fourth quarter, or perhaps even the two-minute warning: the stadium opens on Aug. 2, and many firms feel that it's too late to make up for the construction work that went to others, according to the newspaper.
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One activist guesses that only 2 percent of the contracts went to firms owned by minorities or women, the newspaper reported.
