In what regional leaders call a first for American sports arenas, Levi’s Stadium will host World Cup matches and the Super Bowl in the same year — and the costs of making history are taking shape as Santa Clara officials work to secure the venue from threats.
World Cup public safety costs could hover around $11.5 million, according to city employees, though they can’t say how much the Super Bowl will add. Levi’s Stadium last hosted the Super Bowl in 2016, and much has changed since then, including technology threats such as more advanced drones. But so have security and law enforcement agencies’ information sharing capabilities.
“We have had conversations with the NFL and their public safety division and they actually plan for public safety differently than they did 10 years ago,” City Manager Jovan Grogan said at an Aug. 27 Santa Clara City Council meeting.
Santa Clara Police Capt. Richard Fitting, who oversees the special operations division for major events, said the department is reassigning personnel for planning purposes. He said his division needs more equipment upon reviewing the 2016 Super Bowl’s post-event reports. Earlier this year, the department acquired two all-terrain police vehicles.
“We need those for major events every time there is one,” Fitting said at the meeting. “You will see additional requests and authorizations sought to come forward in the future.”
The 2016 Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium brought about $240 million of estimated economic impact to the Bay Area, according to a report by research firm Sportsimpacts. But Santa Clara, where the stadium is located, only saw about 7% of that benefit. San Jose was just a bit ahead at 12%, with San Francisco pulling in about 57% of the rewards. South Bay officials have said they’re hoping to see a bigger slice of the pie in 2026.
The millions in anticipated public safety costs don’t account for the thousands of hours city staff have already spent on planning. The city is still negotiating venue management agreements with the Bay Area Host Committee, a board of local sports team executives that formed to draw in global athletic events. Under the agreements, the host committee would bear the costs of the events and reimburse the city.
“I know that many of us would have liked these agreements done before,” Grogan said at the meeting. “I started in May of 2023 and at that time the city was still struggling to get the necessary documents that they needed. We received those documents in late 2023 and we really began negotiating in earnest at the beginning of this year.”
The committee has agreed to cover $150,000 in city preparation costs from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2024, and officials are still negotiating a $328,000 reimbursement for city staff time spent over the past year.
It comes as the San Francisco 49ers, whose President Al Guido is also Bay Area Host Committee board president, are investing $200 million into Levi’s Stadium ahead of the events. The money will be spent on technology upgrades, additional field seats and remodeled luxury suites — poising the stadium for the global stage. Meanwhile, the World Cup matches will require a major modification to the stadium’s inner seating bowl, with three rows of seats set to be demolished to accommodate FIFA’s field size standards.
“We have been hard at work renovating and upgrading parts of the stadium for fans, but the work isn’t done yet. Some of our biggest projects are still to come,” Francine Melendez Hughes, 49ers executive vice president and general manager of stadium operations, said in a statement. “We are excited to continue innovating to give fans one of the best viewing experiences in the NFL.”
Event planning discussions have been rife with tension. Fired city attorney Brian Doyle spoke during public comment and urged councilmembers to delay their discussion of stadium preparations pending the full disclosure of agreements between the 49ers and Bay Area Host Committee. Doyle questioned why Guido was signing these contracts as the head of both organizations.
Doyle — who helped lead several city actions to control the 49ers’ management of Levi’s Stadium — famously sued the city last year, alleging officials fired him unlawfully as part of a hushed agreement with 49ers owners.
“There is simply no basis to expect the public to have sufficient knowledge of what their elected officials are approving without a complete understanding of the terms of those agreements,” Doyle said at the meeting.
City Attorney Glen Googins responded that the agreements will be made public prior to any council action on these items.
Mayor Lisa Gillmor echoed Doyle’s concerns and questioned if the host committee is properly reimbursing the city for all the staff time spent over the last year.
“This $150,000 cap doesn’t even cover all the costs, and I’m sure it would be eaten up very very quickly,” Gillmor said.
Gillmor also questioned the host committee’s commitment to bear the costs of work needed to prepare the stadium for both events.
“I want to make sure no work starts until we have some kind of guarantee that’s going to be paid for,” Gillmor said. “It has to be a guarantee.”
City Manager Grogan said Santa Clara employees share the same apprehension.
“That has been a concern of ours,” he said. “I’ll leave it at that.”
A spokesperson for the Bay Area Host Committee said the group is committed to seeing Santa Clara benefit from the games.
“We are excited to be bringing major sporting events to the Bay Area that are projected to bring millions of dollars of positive economic impact across the region, and specifically in Santa Clara,” a spokesperson told San José Spotlight. “We are working diligently with city staff to ensure that we adhere to the parameters of Measure J and, while negotiations are still in progress, we are making positive strides in our regular meetings with the city.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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