similar to Yankee Stadium, how corporate it became, and priced out the hardcore fans. the atmosphere, similar to Yankee stadium is completely dead at Levi's Stadium.... (even the Pac 10 is regretting their decision to sign a 5 year deal for the pac 12 title game there.
build a 1.2Billion stadium 45 miles from S.F. and next to corporate headquarters of Google, Yahoo,Ebay etc. brehs
I'm glad the 49ers will be irrelevant for the next 5-7 years or so, Top 5 biggest bandwagon fans in the country
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2014/12/12/levis-part-2/
-It’s a very impressive new building, full of cutting-edge doo-dads, comfortable red seats and extravagant clubs, but Levi’s Stadium isn’t quite what its builders thought it’d be.
In only four months of operation, it’s pretty safe to conclude: Levi’s is a fine structure, looks spectacular from most angles (if you avert your eyes from the grass field)… but it’s just a football stadium. A nice one, but not a revolution-by-steel-pillar.
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It was meant to be a $1.3B totem for a new era in Silicon Valley and Northern California and the world–or at the least a football version of AT&T Park or a comparable entity to Seattle’s CenturyLink Field (and believe me, the 49ers wanted to blow away both buildings)–and it’s been open for 14 events and it’s not totemic.
Unless you want to use it as a symbol of the 49ers’ growing problems–they built a new stadium, after decades of trying, and they couldn’t get the field right? What does that say about the operation overall?–this stadium doesn’t have an iconic feel to it, not at all.
We’re just four months into its existence, and we already know that the 49ers’ new stadium doesn’t have the atmosphere, the home-field advantage, the fervor, the impact of any of the great new stadiums in North America, just from a football point of view.
Here’s what it looked like just as last night’s Pac-12 title game was getting started…
If I could compare it to anything, I’d say the Santa Clara building is a down-sized version of Jerry Jones’ Dome in North Texas–which doesn’t have a great atmosphere but more of a Extra-Cushiony Space Colony On Jupiter kind of unique feel to it.
The Cowboys’ monstrosity is intentional–it’s luxury beyond luxury, size conquering all imagination, and they’ve established it as all that.
Or Levi’s is a bigger, more extravagant version of the new Stanford Stadium, which is pretty much no-frills except the new seats, suites and sightlines. Not a lot of teams fear going into Stanford Stadium–or worried about the cavernous old one, either, frankly.
Levi’s is… workable. It is nice. It is fine to watch a game (unless you’re on the East side baking in the sun). It is a money machine.
But… Something is wrong here.
It’s not just about the troubles with the grass field–they’ve now put down five fields since August, and last night was only the 14th game at the place–but that’s part of it, too.
And the field STILL was terrible last night. Fair to ask: If they couldn’t get the field right–the FIELD–to start off the Levi’s experience, what else did they get wrong that we don’t know about yet?
* There is nothing very special about Levi’s Stadium other than its ability to make the York family millions and millions of dollars, and now in the middle of its first year, this stadium is getting a national reputation from both 49ers games and the other contests Levi’s has brought in.
It’s Dead Red Stadium.
There’s no life, no ambience, no outside meaning to it, and lots of empty red seats.
Maybe that’s because the PSLs and overall enormous ticket prices have driven out the most passionate fans and turned the stadium to corporate expense accounts and a lounge-lizard mentality.
Maybe the Santa Clara site just attracts a different type of fan–and that fan is new to the NFL scene or is different than anything Candlestick brought, or that CenturyLink brings.
But through six regular-season 49ers home games, it is notably bland in there.
Let’s just say here: The Yorks and Santa Clara had every right to build a stadium that mostly or only serves to make the Yorks money and also gives the players and coaches better facilities.
But there are some (unexpected) side effects to this…
It’s not AT&T Park, still majestic after 15 seasons of baseball. Still a destination. Still important.
Levi’s is not Candlestick Park–it’s far more useful than the ‘Stick and it isn’t a dump, but Candlestick had wild energy and all those memories; now the Levi’s stands are filled with corporate look-at-mes who don’t return to their seats for most of the second half… to get out of the burning sun and just to mingle in the clubs or the broad pavilion.
Oh, there’s a museum. That costs extra money.
As Jon Wilner put it leading up to the Pac-12 title game between Oregon and Arizona: The choosing of this neutral site for the game is already pretty much a flop and they are contracted to play there for a few more years.
(That’s another possible nickname for this place, up to and including 49ers games: Levi’s Neutral Site.)
And interestingly, Jed York himself recently gave the opening season a “B.”
Let’s be fair and say that all new buildings have bugs here and there; you just don’t know where the problems will be until you open the doors and see what breaks. The 49ers will assuredly grow into the building and this building will probably grow on all this. Over time. Eventually.
At some point, this might be considered something more than a neutral site for all involved.
But that was not at all the plan for Levi’s.
York and Santa Clara leaders thought this stadium would draw fans just by itself and would energize the 49ers fan base from the moment the team took the field this season.
The 49ers are 3-3 in the place. The coach might be gone soon. The stands were half-empty for a prized college game last night.
And it’s all hard to ignore.
Not even a half-year old, we can safely conclude that it is really not that.
build a 1.2Billion stadium 45 miles from S.F. and next to corporate headquarters of Google, Yahoo,Ebay etc. brehs
I'm glad the 49ers will be irrelevant for the next 5-7 years or so, Top 5 biggest bandwagon fans in the country
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2014/12/12/levis-part-2/
-It’s a very impressive new building, full of cutting-edge doo-dads, comfortable red seats and extravagant clubs, but Levi’s Stadium isn’t quite what its builders thought it’d be.
In only four months of operation, it’s pretty safe to conclude: Levi’s is a fine structure, looks spectacular from most angles (if you avert your eyes from the grass field)… but it’s just a football stadium. A nice one, but not a revolution-by-steel-pillar.
Advertisement
It was meant to be a $1.3B totem for a new era in Silicon Valley and Northern California and the world–or at the least a football version of AT&T Park or a comparable entity to Seattle’s CenturyLink Field (and believe me, the 49ers wanted to blow away both buildings)–and it’s been open for 14 events and it’s not totemic.
Unless you want to use it as a symbol of the 49ers’ growing problems–they built a new stadium, after decades of trying, and they couldn’t get the field right? What does that say about the operation overall?–this stadium doesn’t have an iconic feel to it, not at all.
We’re just four months into its existence, and we already know that the 49ers’ new stadium doesn’t have the atmosphere, the home-field advantage, the fervor, the impact of any of the great new stadiums in North America, just from a football point of view.
Here’s what it looked like just as last night’s Pac-12 title game was getting started…
If I could compare it to anything, I’d say the Santa Clara building is a down-sized version of Jerry Jones’ Dome in North Texas–which doesn’t have a great atmosphere but more of a Extra-Cushiony Space Colony On Jupiter kind of unique feel to it.
The Cowboys’ monstrosity is intentional–it’s luxury beyond luxury, size conquering all imagination, and they’ve established it as all that.
Or Levi’s is a bigger, more extravagant version of the new Stanford Stadium, which is pretty much no-frills except the new seats, suites and sightlines. Not a lot of teams fear going into Stanford Stadium–or worried about the cavernous old one, either, frankly.
Levi’s is… workable. It is nice. It is fine to watch a game (unless you’re on the East side baking in the sun). It is a money machine.
But… Something is wrong here.
It’s not just about the troubles with the grass field–they’ve now put down five fields since August, and last night was only the 14th game at the place–but that’s part of it, too.
And the field STILL was terrible last night. Fair to ask: If they couldn’t get the field right–the FIELD–to start off the Levi’s experience, what else did they get wrong that we don’t know about yet?
* There is nothing very special about Levi’s Stadium other than its ability to make the York family millions and millions of dollars, and now in the middle of its first year, this stadium is getting a national reputation from both 49ers games and the other contests Levi’s has brought in.
It’s Dead Red Stadium.
There’s no life, no ambience, no outside meaning to it, and lots of empty red seats.
Maybe that’s because the PSLs and overall enormous ticket prices have driven out the most passionate fans and turned the stadium to corporate expense accounts and a lounge-lizard mentality.
Maybe the Santa Clara site just attracts a different type of fan–and that fan is new to the NFL scene or is different than anything Candlestick brought, or that CenturyLink brings.
But through six regular-season 49ers home games, it is notably bland in there.
Let’s just say here: The Yorks and Santa Clara had every right to build a stadium that mostly or only serves to make the Yorks money and also gives the players and coaches better facilities.
But there are some (unexpected) side effects to this…
It’s not AT&T Park, still majestic after 15 seasons of baseball. Still a destination. Still important.
Levi’s is not Candlestick Park–it’s far more useful than the ‘Stick and it isn’t a dump, but Candlestick had wild energy and all those memories; now the Levi’s stands are filled with corporate look-at-mes who don’t return to their seats for most of the second half… to get out of the burning sun and just to mingle in the clubs or the broad pavilion.
Oh, there’s a museum. That costs extra money.
As Jon Wilner put it leading up to the Pac-12 title game between Oregon and Arizona: The choosing of this neutral site for the game is already pretty much a flop and they are contracted to play there for a few more years.
(That’s another possible nickname for this place, up to and including 49ers games: Levi’s Neutral Site.)
And interestingly, Jed York himself recently gave the opening season a “B.”
Let’s be fair and say that all new buildings have bugs here and there; you just don’t know where the problems will be until you open the doors and see what breaks. The 49ers will assuredly grow into the building and this building will probably grow on all this. Over time. Eventually.
At some point, this might be considered something more than a neutral site for all involved.
But that was not at all the plan for Levi’s.
York and Santa Clara leaders thought this stadium would draw fans just by itself and would energize the 49ers fan base from the moment the team took the field this season.
The 49ers are 3-3 in the place. The coach might be gone soon. The stands were half-empty for a prized college game last night.
And it’s all hard to ignore.
Not even a half-year old, we can safely conclude that it is really not that.
