John York and Denise DeBartolo York took over the ownership of the 49ers from her brother, Eddie DeBartolo Jr., in 2000. The team has a record of 44 wins and 60 losses since then.
Posted on 11/12/2006 9:58:39 AM PST by SmithL
While her husband John York held a news conference in Santa Clara on Thursday to say the 49ers had plans to move out of San Francisco, Denise DeBartolo York remained at the family's home base in Youngstown, Ohio.
"I had made a commitment a long time ago to do something and I had to honor it," DeBartolo York explained, saying she wasn't just trying to avoid the spotlight.
Her duty? The co-owner of the 49ers, a businesswoman who has been profiled in Forbes magazine and sits as a director of Simon Property Group, North America's largest publicly traded real estate company, was volunteering for the Salvation Army.
While York, the other co-owner, outlined plans to build a 49ers stadium in Santa Clara County, DeBartolo York was ringing a red bell and collecting money in a kettle outside a Walgreens and a WalMart in Mahoning County.
"People did recognize me there," she said with a laugh, "and unfortunately, we did not get that much money. I think people probably went, 'Oh right, I'm going to put money in her kettle? I don't think so.' "
All the while, DeBartolo York was acutely aware of the 49ers' proceedings. She always is. The family's small, two-story office building with its 1960s facade, which sits along a main thoroughfare in Youngstown, doesn't look like much from the outside. But it's well wired to what happens at Monster Park in San Francisco and at the 49ers' headquarters in Santa Clara, because the franchise is now the Yorks' main business focus.
"We're all very direct and very open. Everybody is always e-mailing and calling each other back and forth constantly," DeBartolo York said during a wide-ranging phone interview Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
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