San Francisco 49ers to provide free license plates, ensuring specialty plate will be printed

Funds expected to raise millions for state parks and youth programs

A two-year campaign to create a new California license plate featuring the San Francisco 49ers logo to raise money for state parks and youth programs will apparently cross the goal line after all.

Under California law, motorists must pre-purchase 7,500 orders for any specialty license plate before the state Department of Motor Vehicles will agree to print it. But through March 31, only 4,135 orders had come in for the proposed 49ers plate, with a May 31 deadline looming.

To finish the drive, the family of Denise DeBartolo York, which owns the 49ers, has agreed to pay for the remaining 3,365 plates needed, as long as fans sign up for them, on a first-come-first served basis. The cost is $50 up front to buy a 49ers plate and $40 a year to renew, on top of normal vehicle registration fees, making the York family contribution about $168,250.

If the 7,500 total is reached as expected, the DMV will print the plate, and the 49ers will become the first professional sports team in the state with their logo on a California license plate.

“I’m over the moon. I’m really excited,” said Wade Crowfoot, secretary of California’s Natural Resources Agency, which oversees state parks. “It’s a great win-win. It’s a way for fans to demonstrate their support for the team and to do something great for their communities and California.”

Overall, 75% of the proceeds from sales will go to the state’s “Outdoors for All” program, which aims to expand access to parks to underserved communities, along with other state parks projects.

The nonprofit 49ers Foundation also will receive 25% of the proceeds for the team’s youth and science education programs.

California motorists can obtain the complimentary license plate by going to 49ersplates.com and using the code “faithful” during checkout. There are some conditions: Anyone obtaining a free 49ers license plate will have to pay their own renewal fees each year. And the free offer is only for regular plates, not personalized plates, which cost $103 each.

They may also go fast: The team announced the free offer to its season ticket holders first, and by noon Monday, about 2,700 free plates were left.

The specialty 49ers plates are eligible for autos, trucks, motorcycles or trailers registered in California.

“We had well over 4,000 folks sign up,” said Justin Prettyman, executive director of the San Francisco 49ers Foundation, of the numbers before the free offer was extended. “We made it more than halfway there. There was a lot of energy and excitement around the program, but it’s a long haul to get 7,500 people. It’s not an easy feat. We are really thrilled by the support and grateful to fans who did pledge.”

The 49ers Foundation provides programs to about 25,000 children a year across the Bay Area and from Salinas to Sacramento. The foundation funds health and wellness programs, has classrooms in Levi’s Stadium to teach science, math and other subjects to participating schools, and helps fund girls flag football programs.

Hall-of-Fame receiver Jerry Rice already filmed a short video promoting the specialty license plate that was shown on the scoreboard at Levi’s Stadium during home games. The California Natural Resources Agency set up a booth at 49ers games to help increase sign-ups.

But the best marketing tool may well be once the plates hit the street, sometime next year, Prettyman said.

“People will pull into Levi’s Stadium parking lot, and other people will say how do I get one of those?” he said.

More than $200 million has been raised over the years from California’s 14 specialty plates, among them the Yosemite plate, which funds projects in Yosemite National Park; a Snoopy plate that raises money for California museums; a whale-tail plate that has generated money for beach cleanups and coastal programs; a veterans plate that aids military veterans programs; and other specialty plates.

“These plates are surprisingly impactful,” Crowfoot said. “They protect open space, build hiking and biking trails, and support programs to get kids into parks. It’s a fun and creative way to support the outdoors. They  are a big deal. And in an era of budget uncertainty they provide consistent funding.”

Crowfoot said he expects the 49ers plate to raise several million dollars over the next five years. The money will fund a range of programs, from grants to build and renovate parks in low-income neighborhoods to school field trips to parks and historic sites.

But they don’t always succeed.

In 2010, a plate with an image of the Golden Gate Bridge — whose backers hoped it would raise $1 million a year for the California Coastal Conservancy — failed to secure enough buyers, as did a plate featuring an image of a bear and a mountain that would have funded projects of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a state agency.

California’s most popular commemorative plates first came out in the 1990s, with big splashy artwork, like the Yosemite and Coastal Commission’s whale-tail plates.

But complicating the trend is a state law, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, that limited the size of the art work on the plates. Prompted by concerns from the California Highway Patrol that officers were having a hard time reading the license plate numbers, the law required that any logo be no larger than 2-by-3 inches — about the size of a business card.

So fans wanting a plate with a huge image of famed coach Bill Walsh or the 49ers five Super Bowl trophies will have to wait until state lawmakers change the law. Until then, 49ers officials are optimistic the new plates are finally hitting their stride.

“For a limited time there will be a limited number that are free,” Prettyman said. “Hopefully they will fly off the shelves.”