49ers preparing Levi’s Stadium renovation plan

Sports Business Journal’s Bret McCormick has reported that the San Francisco 49ers are hoping to soon commence an eight-figure renovation project at Levi’s Stadium that would see nine more owner’s suites added to the 23 that the venue already features.

The project will also see renovation work on over a hundred of the venue’s standard suites, including the installation of custom and lockable wine refrigerators and liquor cabinets, ahead of Levi’s Stadium 10th year of existence and the stadium hosting 2026 FIFA World Cup™ matches in three years.

49ers CRO Brent Schoeb said:

[The] timing of these [renovations], the World Cup factored into it, but it’s certainly to attract all types of world class events too, including another Super Bowl and more Tier 1 concerts. That was certainly one of the prevailing factors.

Populous is finalising design with the 49ers, while Devcon will be the contractor and is lining up permitting. The footprint of the nine suites that are becoming owner’s suites will stay the same, but all facets of their interiors will be upgraded. The owner’s suites are sold on 20-year terms and come with upgraded membership perks like all-inclusive food and beverage and Napa and Sonoma vintners pouring every game, access to all events, whether football, live music, or soccer, field access pregame, and road game trips.

ALSD International 2023 is being hosted at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, October 9-10th, where optimising revenue through New Builds, Renovations and Service Expansions takes centre-stage at the leading event and 365 community for the Premium Seat & Hospitality industry, with some exciting venue tours planned. Populous was a Presenting Partner Sponsor for ALSD International 2022.

Schoeb said:

Call it the who’s who of Silicon Valley in there, Fortune 500 companies in the Bay area in there, our owner sits in there, there are other owners of Bay Area sports teams are looking to join this party as well, so certainly taking care of the one-percenters.

The 49ers plan to complete the suite renovation project in two phases, with half finished before the 2024 season and half finished before 2025, so as not to disrupt Levi’s Stadium’s private events schedule. The venue hosts around a hundred private events annually.

The team’s model owner’s suite has been built in the SAP Tower. The 49ers will pay for the project out of their capital expenditure budget but have also already applied for the NFL’s club seat premium visiting team share (VTS) waiver program ahead of next week’s owners meeting when the 49ers will find out if their waiver is approved.

The NFL contributes to fan experience improvements at its teams’ venues through the VTS waiver. Schoeb said that the team is also looking at upgrades to the stadium’s videoboard, as well as changes to ingress/egress, but those plans are still probably six to 12 months away from being finalised.

Source: Sports Business Journal

Imagery, courtesy: Populous