Bad blood in Santa Clara over Swift ticket giveaway

Ticket sales were so hot for Taylor Swift’s Levi’s Stadium show in May that the 49ers gave the green light for a second show, only to wind up giving away 20,000 tickets to fill the stands.

“They call it papering the stadium,” Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor said.

The ticket giveaway resulted in a loss of $2 million in potential ticket sales, according to a recent report by the Santa Clara Stadium Authority, and added fuel to the rift between the city and the NFL team over management of Levi’s Stadium.

Here’s the story:

Swift’s “Reputation” stadium tour was the highest-grossing U.S. tour of 2018, taking in

$266 million, according Billboard magazine. So it was no surprise when the first show on Friday, May 11, sold a whopping 50,503 tickets.

Given that demand, the 49ers allowed concert promoter Louis Messina to add a second show a day earlier. But the Thursday night show sold only 29,333 tickets, leaving the stadium about half empty.

According to city officials, Swift’s contract called for the stadium to be filled to an acceptable level, so those 20,000 tickets were given away. “We don’t know who got the tickets,” Gillmor said.

Because the tickets were handed out for free, the city lost out on the $4-per-ticket surcharge used to cover police and traffic control costs, which added to the loss.

“We made over $3 million on the first show and lost over over $2 million on the second show,” Gillmor said.

Rahul Chandhok,the 49ers’ vice president of public affairs, said even with the ticket giveaway, the Swift shows still netted a cool $1 million for the stadium — of which $500,000 went to Santa Clara.

As for the mayor’s criticism?

“It’s exactly this deceptive approach, her lack of transparency and fuzzy math that make Mayor Gillmor difficult to trust,” Chandhok said.

Nonetheless, the Swift shows’ roller-coaster ticket sales highlight some of the challenges of booking big events at Levi’s.

Chandhok laid part of the blame on the booking slump to Santa Clara’s 10 p.m. curfew for weekday concerts.

“The largest promoters in the world forecasted the consequences of the music ban, and now we are seeing it play out.” Chandhok said.

That’s showbiz.

Publicizing private meeting: Presidential candidate and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., made a point of going very public with her recent private meeting with members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Support for Israel has become a hot issue among some left-leaning Democrats, who believe the current Israeli government, led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is too far to the right and has little interest in making peace with neighboring Palestinians.

So when the group’s annual convention rolled into Washington, D.C., all eyes were on who would show up and who would be absent.

Because of a scheduling conflict, Harris was unable to meet with the 2,000 California delegates who went to Washington.

Instead, Harris sent an aide.

When the progressive group MoveOn heard Harris wasn’t going to attend the meeting, it included Harris’ and several other presidential candidates’ faces in an internet shout-out, praising them for “not pandering to an organization that does not uphold progressive values.”

Coincidence or not, no sooner did the MoveOn posting appear on social media than Harris invited seven members of the California delegation to her office for a 45-minute private meeting.

“We were honored to meet with her, as seven of the millions of pro-Israel Americans,” said group member and San Francisco political consultant Sam Lauter.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Harris tweeted a photo of the group, along with a message reiterating “the need for a strong U.S.-Israel alliance, the right of Israel to defend itself and my commitment to combat antisemitism in our country and around the world.”

And just so there was no doubt, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee re-tweeted the picture.

Mental note: Mayor London Breed’s effort to rework the city’s tangled mental health programs is not coming cheap.

Salaries for the threeperson team are budgeted at $547,609.

That includes team leader Dr. Anton Nigusse Bland’s current base salary at San Francisco General Hospital of $319,000, plus $228,609 for his two assistants, who have yet to be hired.

Bland will be on loan from the hospital and continue to see patients, so his salary is not necessarily a new expense, but the aides’ salaries will be.

Whatever the case, the $547,609 cost — plus expenses — gives you an idea of how the city winds up spending more than $240 million a year trying to solve the homelessness epidemic.

Let’s hope that this time it makes a noticeable difference.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phillip Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier

Josie Lepe / Special to The Chronicle 2018 Taylor Swift plays Levi’s Stadium May 11, 2018. Thousands of tickets for the night before were given away.