World Cup ‘cemented’ 49ers home as major event hub. What’s next for Levi’s Stadium?
49ers fans will never feel the same way about Levi’s Stadium as they did about Candlestick Park. It’s a fact of life sports fans in Northern California have grown to accept.
The sun will continue to scorch thousands of fans sitting in the east side of the stadium. Santa Clara will never feel like San Francisco, nor will the area surrounding Levi’s offer much of a destination feel. Yet while Levi’s doesn’t have the same charm or history as its predecessor, the Silicon Valley stadium is building a resume of big events that Candlestick Park never hosted.
“In the last five and a half months,” said Al Guido, 49ers president and board member of the Bay Area Host Committee, “we have cemented our place as a global destination for marquee events.”
Guido spoke with The Sacramento Bee in a phone interview Wednesday, shortly after Levi’s Stadium concluded its hosting of six World Cup matches, including the United States’ win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the knockout Round of 32 on July 1.
Wednesday also marked five months since Levi’s Stadium hosted Super Bowl LX, in which the Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots, making it the first sports venue to ever host the Super Bowl and World Cup in the same year.
Guido said the seven total games throughout the two events generated $1 billion in local economic activity — compared to $2 billion total during Levi’s first 12 years after opening in 2014.
“Between the Super Bowl and World Cup, you’re talking a million-plus visitors to our region,” Guido said. “What I’m most proud of, during Super Bowl 50 (in 2016), there was all this talk around like, ‘Is this a market that is going to continue to host big events or is this a one-off?’”
All six of the World Cup matches were reported as sellouts (with the stadium configured to a max capacity of 68,827, slightly above the 68,500 maximum for 49ers home games) despite Levi’s Stadium not getting blue-blood World Cup contenders in its group stage draw like France, Spain, Germany, Brazil or the defending champions from Argentina.
Instead, it was Qatar, Switzerland, Austria, Jordan, Algeria, Turkey, Paraguay and Australia sent to Levi’s for the group stage.
The U.S. match in the knockout stage was far and away the most in-demand of the six matches — and it benefitted from the hype of Team USA clinching Group D, and with it a guaranteed Bay Area appearance, after just two group-stage matches.
Guido noted that there were skeptics who thought “our draw was going to resonate in unsold seats, and empty buildings and hotels not being packed.”
“The complete opposite happened,” Guido said.
As someone who went to each World Cup match at Levi’s Stadium, the electricity of the atmosphere far exceeded expectations, even when smaller countries like Jordan and Algeria squared off.
The fears of inflated seat prices and travel restrictions never negatively manifested in a noticeable way at Levi’s. The stadium many 49ers fans bemoan because it isn’t Candlestick was lit up by international visitors and locals looking to see the world’s biggest soccer event in the Bay Area.
“One part that I didn’t see happening, but it was really neat to see, how (opposing countries) interacted with each other, the fan bases themselves. It was like a big party. That part was super cool,” said Guido.
A push for more Super Bowls, World Cups
Guido and his cohorts aren’t done trying to lure major events to the region despite finishing their busy year with the Super Bowl and World Cup — ahead of another 49ers season beginning in September.
The Bay Area Host Committee, which is made primarily of high-ranking executives from the Bay Area’s professional sports teams, announced June 30 it was launching a “leadership council” to fortify the sports commission aimed at continuing to attract major events.
That includes future Super Bowls and the 2031 Women’s World Cup, which will be cohosted by the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica. The 49ers paid $200 million to upgrade stadium amenities ahead of the Super Bowl and World Cup, which included new 4K-resolution scoreboards, scoreboard ribbons, widening the field to accommodate soccer and adding premium club areas.
“I think we’re already publicly out there supporting our efforts to land the Women’s World Cup,” Guido said. I think it would be a great feather in our cap and I think we’re well positioned to do so.
“Will we put in for more Super Bowls? The answer is 100% yes. I’m not ready to say which years yet. I would just tell you the stadium itself is in a good position, we have good public support to do so. ... We have every intention to continue to bid on Super Bowls.”
The next four Super Bowls are already spoken for. Next season’s will be at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, followed by Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in 2028, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas in 2029, and the new Nissan Stadium in Nashville in 2030, with the next opening coming in 2031.
