What 49ers and Cardinals are expecting inside empty Levi’s Stadium for the opener
Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury might have said it best when asked about what to expect Sunday when his team travels to Levi’s Stadium to play the 49ers with no fans in the seats.
“It is uncharted territory for coaches and players,” he said in a conference call Wednesday with Bay Area reporters. “None of us have ever played in a real football game in front of no one. But we want to embrace that. I mean, who knows if it’ll ever happen again, when it’ll happen again? It’s us versus them in kind of its purest form.”
Seven NFL teams are going to allow some number of fans in the stadium early in the new NFL season season, including the Kansas City Chiefs when they open their Super Bowl defense against the Houston Texans on Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium.
The 49ers, in conjunction with local and state officials, have decided to keep fans from attending home games for the foreseeable future, though they left the door open for fans to return later in the season.
Atmospheres for games with no fans will be unlike any the NFL has ever seen. The league has sent out audio of fan noise for each team to play in a continuous stream throughout home games that can only be paused during halftime.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, in the team-produced “Brick by Brick” web series, called the audio a “form of human torture” during a recent practice inside the stadium. The sound is a constant buzzing of fans, rather than the waves of cheers that happen throughout a normal game.
“It definitely makes you more angsty on the sideline, I’ll put it that way.” said Kingsbury, whose team has also practiced to the noise. “Because it isn’t realistic when it’s constant like that.”
Shanahan, half joking, said he plans to keep the in-game decibel level a secret, “So (the Cardinals) don’t play with the right decibels the whole week, but we’ll see if that’s an advantage for us,” he said.
Shanahan and the rest of the coaching staff will have to get used to the constant buzz while trying to communicate with each other through headsets and with players. Shanahan calls all the plays for the offense from the sideline. Same for defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who chooses not to call games from up in the coaches booth.
“I think it’ll be a huge adjustment for everyone out there,” Shanahan said. “You don’t realize just what constant noise is like. It’s not about being loud or too low. It’s about just constant. I mean, usually when the play starts, you get to hear the pop and you get to hear football. When things aren’t going on, you can have conversations with people and stuff.
“Hopefully we can make sure that doesn’t affect our game, which it shouldn’t. It’s more about just the irritation of it and you embrace it and realize that that can’t affect you unless you let it affect you and you just go back to playing football.”
How the noise comes through during television broadcasts remains to be seen. The limited number of reporters allowed to attend 49ers home games will be sealed inside the press box at the southwest corner of the stadium, high above the field, and won’t be able to get an accurate gauge. There’s typically a limited amount of noise from the field sent in through speakers in the press box.
There was a thought earlier in the summer the team would construct an outdoor press area in one of the premium seating sections. But the team instead opted to keep press in their normal area and will construct plexiglass barriers between each seat. The press box capacity will be limited to roughly 50 reporters after some 250 were credential for the NFC Championship Game in January.
49ers players have talked about bringing their own energy to the field without fans to help pump them up. Many have said they don’t know what the experience will be like, especially during the build up before the game when the energy typically rises steadily as fans get to their seats.
“It’s going to be weird and we’re going to miss those guys,” quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said. “The energy they bring, it’s unbelievable. It’s invaluable for our team.”
The 49ers have also talked about last season’s Super Bowl defeat as enough motivation to offset the missing 68,500 fans.
“I think that we’re just going to be in our zone and not really worried about the crowd noise too much, even though it’s going to be playing the entire time from start to finish,” running back Raheem Mostert said. “That’s going to be a little bit different, but, but yeah I don’t believe that I’m going to be necessarily affected by it when I’m on the field in between those white lines.”
Shanahan said he rewatched the NFC title game against the Packers. He noticed the atmosphere and fan excitement through his TV screen. It was unquestionably the most raucous setting for a 49ers home game since Levi’s Stadium opened in 2014, and it reinforced what the team will be missing in its home opener.
“It pumped me up,” Shanahan said. “Then you realize, oh man, it’s not going to be like that this Sunday.”