The Super Bowl will return to the Bay Area for the first time in over 30 years on Sunday by welcoming more than a million fans to Santa Clara, California for what will be a hi-tech experience at Levi’s Stadium.
Levi’s Stadium, which broke ground in 2012 in the heart of Silicon Valley, is the next step in arena construction. The $1.3 billion project invites fans to a new level of integration with not only the game being played on the field but the venue it takes place in.
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Announced in 2010, the 1.85 million square foot building coincides with the 49ers vision to not only deliver the best forms of entertainment for every customer, but doing so with its impact to the surrounding environment. Ethan Casson, Chief Revenue Officer for the San Francisco 49ers, worked with multiple teams to make Levi’s Stadium in line with a commitment to improving the fan experience, green architecture and environmental sustainability, and fulfilling the Niners’ technological vision.
From mobile apps that let’s the user order “in-seat delivery” and view multiple-angle replays of the game in front of them, to offering a wi-fi access point every 100 seats in the bowl to keep strong online connections to thousands of devices simultaneously, the building teems with tech at all corners.
All in an effort to provide a truly unique entertainment experience, the technology incorporated into Levi’s Stadium is a testament to the 49ers’ commitment its fans.
“We didn’t want to integrate technology for technology’s sake. If a fan or a customer comes to Levi’s Stadium for any event and goes away feeling like they were able to engage with things that were happening not just on the field, but relative to connectivity or if they were trying to do something specific to social, like integrate the Levi’s Stadium Mobile app, to us is the measuring stick,” Casson said.
With over 400 miles of fiber-optic cables in its walls to supply its wireless routers or the two 9,600 square foot video boards, the stadium is built to deliver state of the art technology while making itself “future-proof.”
The 49ers organization is one of the most storied franchises in the league. With five Super Bowl trophies in its halls and scores of hall of famers in its books, the Niners have garnered a rich history since its first NFL season in 1950. To properly remember where it’s been, the organization partnered with Sony to create the 49ers Museum to showcase its history in digital format.
Just like the rest of Levi’s, the museum is nothing short of a technological marvel.
“They’re gonna be exposed to one of the most interactive museums that any team’s ever built,” Casson said.
Those visiting the 20,000 square foot facility will be met with a tunnel filled with Niners memorabilia lining the walls, a database that fans can use that has “every possible stat on every person that ever wore a 49ers uniform”, a digital archive of videos and photos that spans the team’s history, and much more.
To ensure a seamless experience throughout the museum and the rest of what Levi’s has to offer, the Bay Bombers partnered with Violin Memory, founders of the flash storage memory market according to Violin Memory Chief Marketing Officer Amy Love.
“A key part of our tenant is data protection. If you can just imagine the value of the historical images and archives of a franchise like the 49ers, to take on the responsibility to store and host and protect that data is a real testament to the strength and power of Violin storage platform and capabilities,” Love said.
After a few years of stadium events under its belt, the Niners upgraded in 2015 to Violin Memory’s 7300 Flash Storage Platform which packs 70 terabytes of raw storing space. With the enhancements, Love has “no expectation that the 49ers are going to need any additional storage capacity for the next several years.”
The storage increase serves as an improvement, something that’s reminiscent of the area Levi’s Stadium is in. Silicon Valley is known for constantly making technology better, but, more so than that, it’s known for its obsession for making things work for the planet as much as it does the consumer. Something that the 49ers kept close to heart during construction.
“We were really mindful of our green responsibility,” Casson said. “It was important to ownership and everyone associated with the project that we set out to be the first LEED Gold building in new development in sports and were able to achieve that with solar panels, and a lot of different decisions that we made along the way relative to energy efficiency.”
A rundown of a few features that the stadium includes gives a glimpse of how environmentally conscious the planning phases of Levi’s Stadium must have been.
On the higher levels a 27,000 square foot “living roof,” comprised of 16 kinds of plants native to the area, overlooks three sun-paneled bridges that lead visitors to the arena. According to NRG, the solar panels are a part of a 375kW installation which “provides enough power over the course of a year to offset the power consumed at the stadium during home games.”
The San Francisco 49ers have built themselves one of the most technologically integrated stadiums to call home. All the planning and choices implemented to make Levi’s Stadium will make one of the biggest sporting events all the more special.
“I think decisions we made relative to connectivity, bandwidth, all the infrastructure that went into the stadium, the future-proofing that went into the stadium, the wifi, helped us secure and have the opportunity to put on not just a great game but a historic game in Super Bowl 50,” Casson said.