Levi’s Stadium was supposed to be a stadium fit for the San Francisco 49ers’ historic legacy. The team won all five of its National Football League championships when the team played home games in San Francisco’s now-demolished Candlestick Park.
The team was even on the cusp of a sixth title during the Candlestick era after losing Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.
Levi’s Stadium was going to be former Coach Jim Harbaugh’s house in the eyes of the 49er fanbase dubbed “The Faithful.” The construction of a state of the art stadium in nearby Santa Clara was meant to pave the way for another championship run.
The reality of the situation though, is that the maintenance and utilization of Levi’s Stadium, just like the current 49ers team, has been a disaster from start to finish.
Since the stadium opened in 2014, there has been notable issues with the turf. During a 2014 49ers home game, Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker slipped when the turf collapsed under him in the inaugural season.
Despite assurances from 49ers management that the issues were to be expected in a new stadium, they’ve persisted.
In December 2018, four years after the stadium’s opening, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll described the grass as “lousy”.
Playing the game of football is the main point of having the stadium – if they cannot even put together a field for that, then what’s the point?
Once the 49ers fired Harbaugh, it was clear they had no intention of winning themselves.
Last week, the Pac-12 NCAA conference’s representatives announced that the Pac-12 title game venue would shift away from Levi’s.
The withdrawal of this yearly game is sure to cost the stadium, the 49ers organization and the city of Santa Clara millions of dollars in revenue as Levi’s has hosted every Pac-12 championship game since 2014.
The Washington Huskies defeated the Utah Utes during the last Pac-12 championship game to be hosted in Levi’s.
The total attendance was a mere 35,000 which is only half of the stadium’s capacity.
While Santa Clara residents and South Bay 49ers fans may disagree, the biggest problem about Levi’s is its location.
It’s 45 miles away from San Francisco and has no timely public transportation options for fans from the city.
If visitors opt out of using the cost-effective but time-consuming public transportation modes available, they would find themselves waiting over an hour in traffic and having to pay at least $40 for parking.
The location problems are simply unfixable. The stadium was placed directly in the final approach path for planes landing at SJC, leading to pilots complaining about being blinded by lights down below.
Once visitors from out of the area land, they will have to put up with over-inflated lodging costs thanks to the ongoing Bay Area housing crisis. This contributes to the penny-pinching fans face at Levi’s during every visit.
A slice of pizza at the Levi’s concession stand typically costs $8, while bottled water costs $5.75.
Starkly opposite to this, the same two items cost only $3 and $2 respectively at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium which will be hosting Super Bowl LIII.
This embarrassment was put in front of the entire nation when the College Football Playoff Championship came to Levi’s this month.
Tickets were in such low demand that prices plummeted to a quarter of their face value.
Had local college football fans not bought the remaining dirt-cheap tickets on the day of the title game between Alabama and Clemson, Levi’s Stadium would have presented an embarrassing non-sellout game to the entire nation.
Such a blunder would have reflected poorly on the 49ers organization and the city of Santa Clara.
Levi’s hosts events year round outside of football, but even that runs into its own problems. Santa Clara has a 10 p.m. curfew that has caused issues when trying to bring events.
In 2017, Ed Sheeran skipped performing in the Bay Area because of the curfew. Other musical artists such as Coldplay and U2 ignored the curfew entirely and paid a measly $1,000 fine for breaking it.
It’s a lose-lose proposition – fans and local businesses lose out when artists skip the venue.
Residents cannot sleep when their house vibrates from late-night concert noise.
Levi’s has never fulfilled the promise that it was built on: a championship stadium for a championship team. Unfortunately, you don’t get draft picks for a last place stadium.
San Francisco 49ers fans can get some solace in knowing their rival football fans across the bay will suffer in a similar way, once the Oakland Raiders finish their move to Las Vegas. Instead of having to plan a trip out of town, Raider Nation will have to cross state lines to see their team play.
