SANTA CLARA –- The decision to hire Jim Tomsula last year to replace Jim Harbaugh ended up being a costly one for the 49ers.
The 49ers paid Harbaugh approximately $20 million for his four seasons as head coach. Tomsula worked only one season in that role, and the 49ers will ultimately pay him $14 million.
CEO Jed York said on Monday the organization, owned by his parents Denise DeBartolo York and John York, are prepared to pay whatever price it takes to give the team the best chance to become a consistent Super Bowl contender.
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“I would say this: We’ve got several years of Jimmy T’s salary left and we’re going to eat it,” York said. “Whether he’s coaching somewhere else or not, we owe him that. That’s not a concern.
“I could have easily come out here and said, ‘Hey we had a lot of injuries this year. A lot of things didn’t go our way. We’re going to stick with this.’ That’s not where we are. We’re willing to spend what it takes to get everything right to get back to a championship culture.”
The 49ers were one of the leagues’ lowest-valued franchises, ranking 30th on the Forbes list in 2008 at $865 million. The 49ers closed out Candlestick Park at the end of the 2013 season with a third consecutive trip to the NFC Championship game. Based in large part on the team’s move to Levi’s Stadium, the 49ers are now valued at fifth in the NFL with an estimated worth of $2.7 billion.
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The 49ers have the fifth-most available cap room in the league heading into next year with $113.33 million devoted to a cap that is expected to be approximately $153 million per team.
General manager Trent Baalke said he has the flexibility to spend a lot of money in free agency, but he prefers to aim for building through the draft and using most of the available money to extend their own players who have earned second contracts.
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“The one thing that I’m convinced of is you can’t buy championships,” Baalke said. “You earn championships and there’s a process to it. You build through the draft. You supplement your roster with free agency. You take care of your own guys because that creates ownership on their part.
“So to say we’re going to go out and because we have X-number of dollars to spend, how are we going to spend that? Are you going to spend that on two players or are you going to spend that on 12 players?”
Said York, “In terms of salary cap, just because you have room doesn’t mean that you have to spend the room. You can transfer that room over to this year. We’ve got a lot of salary cap room. So you can’t just spend money to spend money. You want to make sure that you’re spending money wisely.
“So we will always continue to manage the cap. Trent and his staff know that if they need to spend the entire room, they can do it. If they need to roll it over, they can do it and we will do what it takes to get back to a championship level.”
Even with the financial state of the 49ers at its peak, York was asked whether the family had any intention of selling the franchise.
“My family’s owned this team since before I was born and they’ll own this team after I’m gone,” he said.