No joke. The city of Santa Clara is working on a deal to build a new stadium on the theme park's parking lot, which would open to host NFL games by 2012.
Cedar Fair, the new owner of the Paramount Parks, rents the land Great America sits on from the city of Santa Clara. According to news reports, the deal requires the city to provide 8,000 parking spaces for the park. So the city would be on the hook to either build a parking garage, or find some other land on which to park Great America's visitors. The lawyers will have to sort out if the city can count stadium parking as theme park parking, especially on days when the Niners play and the park operates.
Of course, having the Niners play just outside the park's gates ought to provide at least a promotional boost to what has been, in recent years, the least well-developed of the Paramount Parks. (I can't imagine that broadcast directors would pass up the chance to squeeze in a shot of a roller coaster or two when shooting the stadium from a blimp during games.)
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Added Nov. 11: Reports are that talks with SF are back on; No one will be buying a Football/Theme Park combo ticket anytime soon.