Levi's Stadium Informations

Levi's Stadium is an American football stadium located in Santa Clara, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has served as the home venue for the National Football League (NFL)'s San Francisco 49ers since 2014. The stadium is located approximately 40 miles (64 km) south of San Francisco and is named for Levi Strauss and Co., which purchased naming rights in 2013.

In 2006, the 49ers proposed constructing a new stadium at Candlestick Point in San Francisco, the site of their existing home, Candlestick Park. The project, which included plans for retail space and housing improvements, was claimed to be of great potential benefit to the nearby historically blighted neighborhood of Hunters Point. After negotiations with the city of San Francisco fell through, the 49ers focused their attention on a site adjacent to their administrative offices and training facility in Santa Clara.

In June 2010, Santa Clara voters approved a measure authorizing the creation of the tax-exempt Santa Clara Stadium Authority to build and own the new football stadium and for the city to lease land to the authority. A construction loan raised from private investors was secured in December 2011, allowing construction to start in April 2012. Levi's Stadium opened on July 17, 2014.

Levi's Stadium has been the site of the Pac-12 Football Championship Game since 2014. Previously, that game was played on the home field of the division winner possessing the better record. Levi's Stadium hosted Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016. It also hosted Alabama and Clemson for the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship.

The stadium was designed by HNTB, an internationally renowned architectural firm, with a focus on creating a multi-purpose venue and with the fan experience and green technology as top priorities. Civil engineering work was performed by Winzler and Kelly, which was acquired by GHD Group in 2011. Commissioning services were provided by Glumac.

Levi's Stadium is designed as an open stadium with a natural grass field. It has a seating capacity of 68,500, expandable to approximately 75,000 to host major events like the Super Bowl and the FIFA World Cup. However, on June 27, 2015, The Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well Tour made history by extending the stadium to 83,000 in attendance. The seating design of the stadium places approximately two-thirds of the fans in the lower bowl, which is one of the largest of its kind in the entire NFL. The design features significantly improved accessibility and seating options for fans with special needs and disabilities when compared to Candlestick Park. The configuration is similar to Ford Field, home of the NFL's Detroit Lions, with the majority of the luxury suites on one side of the field, which puts the fans in the upper deck closer to the action.

As a multi-use facility, the stadium can be configured for special touring events including concerts, motocross events, indoor/outdoor conferences, and other community events. The stadium is also designed to meet the FIFA field geometry requirements for international soccer, which will allow it to host international friendly matches and major tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup. The stadium will also feature over 109,000 square feet (10,100 m2) of flexible premium meeting space in the club areas.

The stadium has created an in stadium app designed specifically for home football games for the 49ers to provide a better fan experience for fans and guests. The app can be downloaded for free off of the App Store and Google Play. Features are limited on non-football game days or if one is outside the vicinity of the stadium. However, when having the app within the stadium on game and event days one has many options including in-seat delivery, live streaming, navigation and much more. The app can be extended to other events hosted by the stadium if the third party would like to include its features for their guests.

The stadium has had repeated problems with the grass surface, including the grass collapsing under Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker during a week 6 game in 2015. This has led to concern that the stadium wasn't of a high enough caliber to host a high stakes game such as the Super Bowl. The problems with the turf were mentioned the day after the Super Bowl by Denver Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib who said "The footing on the field was terrible. San Fran (the 49ers) has to play eight games on that field, so they better do something to get it fixed. It was terrible."

Stadium proponents and those who expect to profit from the construction of the stadium claim that the stadium is currently one of the largest buildings registered with the U.S. Green Building Council. It is also believed to be the first stadium that will have both a green roof and solar panels. The 49ers are exploring collaborative opportunities with the Environmental Protection Agency to explore environmentally friendly components including:

Levi's Stadium received a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certificate. It is the first professional football stadium in the United States to receive this certification as new construction.

Stadium patrons have the option of riding VTA Light Rail (Valley Transportation Authority) to the stadium. The closest light rail station is the Great America station, which is located just west of the stadium in the median of Tasman Drive.

To the east, other transit options include the VTA Lick Mill station (also in the Tasman median) as well as the Amtrak and ACE station near California's Great America. VTA also offers dedicated shuttle bus service to the stadium from the Warm Springs BART station.

Levi's Stadium was constructed immediately east of the San Tomas Aquino Trail, a paved multi-use path installed by the City of Santa Clara in 2004 that connects to a continuous 100-mile network of off-street paths including the regional San Francisco Bay Trail. The city announced in March 2013 that the San Tomas Aquino Trail would be "temporarily detoured between Agnew Road and Tasman Drive for approximately 1 year starting April 15 and ending when the Stadium is open," but this one-mile section of the trail remained closed to the public before and during stadium events since they began in August 2014, requiring the continued use of the two-mile on-street detour.

The stadium project's Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) disclosed no such ongoing temporary closures of the trail, but stated instead that "While there will likely be a sizeable increase in pedestrians on the San Tomas Aquino Creek trail before and after NFL events, the creek trail is open to both pedestrians and cyclists and there are no restrictions on use. Anyone at anytime can access and use the trail."

The stadium's official mailing address is on Marie P DeBartolo Way (formerly Centennial Boulevard), which is actually a cul-de-sac on the east side of the stadium. The primary access route to the stadium is Tasman Drive, which runs along its northern side. Tasman is a major east-west arterial road which connects to Interstate 880 several miles to the east. Both west and east of the stadium, Tasman intersects with various north-south arterial roads which connect to several important freeways, such as U.S. Route 101, California State Route 237, and Interstate 280. The closest and most important of those north-south roads is Great America Parkway to the west of the stadium, which is named after the theme park to the south.

On May 8, 2013, the 49ers announced that San Francisco-based Levi Strauss and Co. purchased the naming rights to the new stadium. The deal calls for Levi's to pay $220.3 million to the city of Santa Clara and the 49ers over 20 years, with an option to extend the deal for another five years for around $75 million. On September 14, 2015, ESPN's Chris Berman coined the name "The Big Bellbottom" in reference to the stadium. In a Deadspin article covering the 49ers on August 18, 2015, article writer Drew Magary coined the nickname "the Jeanhole" for the stadium.

Levi's Stadium has been praised for its excellent sightlines, beautiful architecture, plentiful amenities, technological advancements, convenient public transportation access, and environmental sustenance. However, the stadium has been heavily criticized for its highly corporate atmosphere and lack of a football atmosphere that Candlestick Park had. With the stadium having the most expensive ticket prices in the league during its inaugural season, many long-tenured and loyal fans that had contributed to the football atmosphere at Candlestick Park could not afford to buy season tickets with the added cost of the Stadium Builders License. Also, with the several distractions inside the stadium that include multiple bars and lounges, fans would often hang out in those places while the game is going on rather than watching the game from their seats.

Levi's Stadium has received some backlash from season ticket holders, who are unhappy regarding rules that won’t allow them to print their tickets until 72 hours before the game, making re-sale very difficult. In addition, older 49ers fans say that people are more segmented at Levi's Stadium in comparison to Candlestick Park, leaving tailgaters with large expanses of empty parking stalls and a more desolate tailgating experience.

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