Levi's Stadium

Proposed new 49ers stadium refers to a proposed stadium to be built in Santa Clara, California in time for the 2015 National Football League (NFL) season.

On June 8, 2010, voters in Santa Clara, a suburban city just northwest of San Jose, voted to adopt Measure J, which allows the City of Santa Clara to lease land, currently occupied by Great America theme park's overflow parking lot, to the 49ers Stadium Authority in order to construct a new 68,500-seat football stadium, where the San Francisco 49ers will be the primary tenant. Assuming necessary funds can be secured in time, construction will start in 2012.

The 49ers initially presented a plan on July 18, 2006, to construct a new 68,500-seat, open-air stadium to be built in time for the 2015 NFL Season at Candlestick Point in San Francisco. Originally, part of the area surrounding the current 49ers venue, Candlestick Park, was to be zoned for retail space and housing; the new 49ers stadium was to be combined with such elements, bringing much-needed attractions to the historically blighted neighborhood of Hunters Point. Currently, after failed attempts by the 49ers and the city of San Francisco to come to an agreement on the location of the new stadium, the 49ers have focused their attention on the Santa Clara stadium site, where the 49ers' administrative offices and training facility have been located since 1987.

Santa Clara stadium design proposal
When the stadium plans were still set in San Francisco, the new 68,500 seat stadium was to be built at Candlestick Point on land just southeast of Candlestick Park. The cost of the stadium would have been $916 million. Lennar Corporation would be building housing, retail, and office space around the stadium area. The stadium would be stocked with 150 luxury suites, 7,500 premium club seats, and an increased amount of seats lower and closer to the field, called "bowl seating," potentially raising the 49ers franchise value up as much as $250 million and offering at least $300 million in advertising and concession deals, the majority of which from paid corporate naming. The architectural design would be reminiscent of that of San Francisco buildings and offer a view of the San Francisco skyline to the north.

The current proposed Santa Clara stadium is being designed by HNTB, an internationally renowned architecture firm focused on creating a multi-purpose stadium, with the fan experience and green technology as top priorities.

Basic stadium features
The Santa Clara stadium will be an open stadium with a natural grass field. It will have a seating capacity of 68,500, expandable to approximately 75,000 to host premier events like the Super Bowl and the FIFA World Cup. The seating design of the stadium puts approximately two‐thirds of the fans in the lower bowl. It will be one of the largest lower bowls 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.

Multi-use facility: The stadium can be configured for special touring events including concerts, motocross events, 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 premier tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup. The stadium will also feature over 109000 sqft of flexible premium meeting space in the club areas.

Environmental sustainability
The stadium is currently one of the largest buildings registered with the US 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:


 * Use of an outside commissioning agent to verify that energy‐related systems are installed, calibrated and performing in compliance with the project requirements;
 * Utilization of public transit nearby including VTA, ACE, and Amtrak;
 * Construction of a green roof (27,000± sf), and photovoltaic panels (20,000± sf);
 * Use of paving materials, and roofing materials with a high solar reflectance index;
 * Use of recycled water for landscape irrigation, toilets and urinals along with water‐conserving fixtures;
 * No use of CFC‐based refrigerants in the HVAC systems. Systems will instead use refrigerants that minimize compounds that contribute to ozone depletion;
 * Installation of permanent monitoring systems that provide feedback on ventilation system performance;
 * Diversion, recycling and/or salvaging 75% of non‐hazardous construction waste; and
 * Use of controllable and programmable lighting control systems and thermal comfort control systems.

Previous plans
The San Francisco 49ers have played at Candlestick Park since 1971. The stadium is a sentimental fan-favorite and has housed all 5 Super Bowl Championship teams. It is however the oldest unrenovated stadium in the NFL and is showing its age. The 49ers have been pursuing a new stadium since 1997, when a plan for a stadium and a mall at Candlestick Point passed a public vote. When the plans failed to move forward, the San Francisco 49ers presented an alternative plan on July 18, 2006, to construct a new 68,500-seat, open air stadium as part of a mixed use development featuring housing, commercial and retail space. In November 2006 the team announced that plans for a new stadium at Candlestick Point was not feasible, “citing extensive costs for infrastructure, parking accommodations and other changes that would cost more than the stadium itself”. The 49ers are now focused on making Santa Clara the home to their new stadium. The 49ers’ headquarters and training facility have been located in the city of Santa Clara since 1988.

The 1997 plan
San Francisco voters in 1997 approved $100 million in city spending to build a new stadium and an attached shopping mall at Candlestick Point. However, even after voter approval to grant economic help for the project, the stadium was not constructed as the project failed to get off the ground. Mills Corporation, the company tapped by the 49ers, was unable to put together a plan to successfully construct a new stadium for the team. NFL owners had gone as far as awarding the new stadium the rights to host Super Bowl XXXVII. When the stadium plans stalled, the game went to Qualcomm Stadium instead.

For years, the city and team ownership were embattled over attempts to gain funding and a green-light for construction of a new stadium. None of these attempts proved to be successful.

The 2006 plan
The city of San Francisco received a new incentive to get a new stadium built. Mayor Gavin Newsom wanted to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to the city, and a new stadium would sweeten the city's proposal for selection by the United States Olympic Committee as the official US submission to the IOC. The announcement came in November 2006, with the new 49ers stadium as the centerpiece of an Olympics bid, and the construction of the Olympic village would be converted into low-income housing after the games were over.

The project planning did not get off to a good start, however, with contention between the 49ers and the city of San Francisco over viable locations for the new stadium. Initially, the idea was to build a stadium in the parking lot of Candlestick Park and later demolish the aging stadium. Team ownership feared that construction of the village and the stadium would severely limit the amount of land available in Candlestick Point, creating a parking problem for fans and increasing traffic along the only road that directly links the stadium to the freeway. Moreover, with residents in the low-income housing by 2016, traffic would be increased indefinitely, further damaging the already-limited methods of transportation to the park.

With San Francisco unable to come up with better locations for the stadium or ways to circumvent the problems posed by a construction at Candlestick Point, team owners Denise DeBartolo York and John York announced on November 9, 2006, that the 49ers were shifting its efforts to create a new stadium to the city of Santa Clara, approximately 40 mi south of San Francisco (and existing home to the team offices and training facility).

The sudden removal of the planned stadium forced the San Francisco Olympics bid group to cancel its proposal, which engendered great anger not only from Mayor Newsom, but also from such 49ers legends as Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott who were part of the effort bring the Olympics to the Bay Area. In addition, many fans were outraged at the suggestion to move the 49ers out of the city that it had shared history with for decades. The Yorks insisted that the legacy of the franchise would be respected in the sense that the 49ers would not be renamed nor moved out of the Bay Area. This was met with much opposition from Mayor Newsom and Senator Dianne Feinstein (who was mayor of San Francisco between 1978 and 1988); the senator stated that the team should be unable to use the San Francisco name if its operations were not based in the city. On January 3, 2007, California State Senator Carole Migden (D-SanFrancisco) introduced a bill, entitled SB49, that would bar the 49ers from building a new stadium within a 100 mi radius of San Francisco, if they were to leave the city. The 49ers organization announced its strong opposition to the legislation and retorted that passing such a bill would only encourage the team to move out of the Bay Area altogether. Migden's bill died quietly without a hearing.

Measure J: June 8, 2010
Measure J is a binding, voter-initiated measure put on the ballot with signatures from over 15% of Santa Clara registered voters. All documents cited below are publicly available on the City of Santa Clara’s official website.


 * Ballot Question: This is the question that will be presented to voters on June 8.
 * Shall the City of Santa Clara adopt Ordinance 17.20 leasing City property for a professional football stadium and other events; no use of City General or Enterprise funds for construction; no new taxes for residents for stadium; Redevelopment Agency funds capped for construction; private party pays all construction cost overruns; no City/Agency obligation for stadium operating/maintenance; private party payment of projected fair market rent; and additional funds for senior/youth/library/recreation to City’s General Fund?
 * Voter Ordinance: This city ordinance becomes law if Santa Clara voters approve Measure J.

Measure J was approved by the voters; the 49ers and County of Santa Clara now need to raise $937 million for the stadium, construction of which is scheduled to begin in 2012. If construction proceeds on time, the stadium is scheduled to be ready for the 2015 season.

Stadium proponents and opponents

 * Vote Yes on J or Santa Clarans for Economic Progress was formed and is being paid for by the San Francisco 49ers (York owners). It is portrayed as a coalition made up of local residents, business owners, retirees, homeowners, civic leaders, elected officials and native Santa Clarans working to bring a new stadium to Santa Clara.
 * Santa Clara Plays Fair is a volunteer organization leading the opposition to the proposed stadium project.

Santa Clara city council negotiations
The Santa Clara stadium project has been in the works since 2007 with negotiations beginning in 2008. Two years have produced the following documents that are key to understanding the stadium deal that will go before the voters of Santa Clara June 8, 2010. All documents cited below are publicly available on the City of Santa Clara’s website.


 * Term Sheet: Detailed agreement between the city of Santa Clara and the San Francisco 49ers about the financing, construction, operation, and eventual demolition of the stadium. Key points include: no new or increased city taxes or costs to residents; 49ers responsible for construction and operation cost overruns; and the city will continue to own the land and receive rent payments back to its general fund from the stadium.
 * 49ers Stadium Proposal: A PowerPoint presentation given to the City of Santa Clara April 24, 2007.
 * Study: Economic and Fiscal Impacts of a New State-of-the-Art Stadium in Santa Clara4: This is a study conducted by Conventions Sports and Leisure (CSL). It highlights estimates of a new stadium’s economic and fiscal impact on the City of Santa Clara and the region including the creation of new jobs and new economic activity.
 * Environmental Impact Report: This document is part of the state-mandated California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process. It researches in depth all possible environmental impacts the stadium may have.

Most city council members in Santa Clara are extremely receptive to the possibility of a new stadium being constructed there for the 49ers. In 2009, the Santa Clara City Council and city employees began negotiating in earnest with the team, who presented the city with stadium plans. On June 2, 2009, by a 5 to 2 vote, the Santa Clara city council agreed to preliminary terms (as detailed in a term sheet ), and there will be a vote by City of Santa Clara voters on whether to approve the stadium proposal in a June 8, 2010 election. Team officials have said that the team's name will not change; the team will continue to be called the San Francisco 49ers even when the move to Santa Clara is complete.

Santa Clara stadium campaign
The Santa Clara stadium plan currently calls for the new stadium to be located on a city-owned parking lot on Tasman Drive, located adjacent, to the north of California's Great America theme park and leased to Great America for overflow parking. In December 2009, the owner of the theme park filed a lawsuit to stop the project from proceeding. However, this lawsuit has not deterred the plans for a Santa Clara stadium. On December 15, 2009 the Santa Clara City Council voted 5 to 2 to withdraw their city-sponsored ballot measure on the stadium issue in favor of a ballot initiative from a 49ers-backed group. The ballot initiative was voted on on June 8, 2010 and passed election. The ballot measure has been designated Measure J. Santa Clara City Council members William Kennedy and Jamie McLeod had opposed the stadium project and worked (unsuccessfully) to get Measure J defeated.

Websites in support

 * 49er new stadium site

Websites in opposition

 * Santa Clara Plays Fair - Community Needs not Corporate Welfare
 * City of Santa Clara First
 * Santa Clara Panning for Fool's Gold