SANTA CLARA (KRON) -- It's now up to the citizens of Santa Clara to decide if a new stadium should be built for the San Francisco 49ers in a parking lot of the Great America amusement park.

After a marathon meeting that lasted until a little after 1 a.m. Wednesday, council members approved a complex financial deal to build a 68,500-seat stadium in Santa Clara for the 49ers. Under the plan, the city would contribute about $114 million in public funds toward the stadium's nearly billion dollar cost.

"We're pretty confident about the support from the citizens of Santa Clara primarily because this deal has no impact on taxes, no impact on the General Fund, no money whatsoever from residents and it generates the thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars of economic impact for the region. On top of that, through the base rent and the percentage rent that will be paid, the city has the opportunity to recoup all $42 million of the redevelopment funds of their public investment.  So all in all it's a very good deal for the city of Santa Clara."

Another hurdle still facing the project is to get approval from Cedar Fair, the company that owns Great America.

"We definitely have things that we need to work out with Cedar Fair but the city was confident that by providing replacement parking in the new parking garage, that that addresses their concerns.  The good thing about the letter they presented last night is that they want to re-engage in this process and so we're going to be ready to do that."

The rest of the funding would come from the 49ers, from the sale of naming rights and other licenses, and from the NFL.

Santa Clara residents will have a chance to vote on the deal, with a citywide ballot expected next spring.

(Copyright 2009, KRON 4 and the Associated Press, All rights reserved.)