SANTA CLARA – Levi’s Stadium will host a second Super Bowl, officially putting the entire Bay Area back on American sports’ most watched stage.
NFL owners gave their approval Monday to schedule Super Bowl LX for the 49ers’ home field on Feb. 8, 2026.
League commissioner Roger Goodell recalled the Bay Area as an “incredible host” when Super Bowl 50 was held in 2016. The only previous Super Bowl here came in 1985, when Stanford Stadium hosted Joe Montana and the 49ers’ second title in four years.
“We look forward to working with the 49ers and the Bay Area Host Committee to create an impactful Super Bowl LX in 2026 that showcases all the great things the region has to offer,” Goodell said in a statement.
Left unsaid is precisely where Super Bowl week activities will be held, although 49ers president Al Guido did state the “majority certainly” will be in San Francisco.
“You may see a shift of focus from where we hosted it before to maybe more of waterfront, now that we have Chase Center, which wasn’t there for Super Bowl 50,” Guido added on a video call with reporters. “We’re still working through it. We have a couple of years now, so some of the infrastructure may be different than how it stands today.”
Guido made sure to thank Warriors executives Joe Lacob and Brandon Schneider, as well as Giants CEO Larry Baer. Those teams’ waterfront venues can offer a secured swatch for Super Bowl week events, which typically include fan festivities, the NFL Honors show, and the Opening Night media festivities, the latter of which were held at downtown San Jose’s SAP Center in 2016.
Teams are expected to practice and stay in the South Bay as they did for Super Bowl 50, but that’s not finalized, Guido said.
Super Bowl LX will precede Levi’s Stadium also serving among 16 venues in North America for the men’s soccer World Cup in the summer of 2026.
“Being able to bring a Super Bowl and World Cup in the same year, no one will ever do it, and we will,” Guido said. “We know it’s a tall task putting this on. We not have been able to do without all the support. I’m very thankful to the city of Santa Clara and what they’ve been able to do to support us in all those efforts.”
Guido hopes this is a sign the Bay Area is entering the fabled “Super Bowl rotation” of host cities – typically the warmer-weather spots in South Florida, New Orleans, Southern California. “I do believe this puts us up for future Super Bowls. We have to pull this one off,” Guido added.
Levi’s Stadium indeed was imagined as a multiple-Super Bowl venue. The 49ers helped speak that into existence back at the April 2012 groundbreaking ceremony.
“It’s going to be an unbelievable venue, not just for 49ers games but everything, from Super Bowls to soccer matches to concerts and college football,” 49ers CEO Jed York said at Levi’s groundbreaking.
Former 49ers coach George Seifert, at that same ceremony, noted how bringing the Super Bowl back here affords people “access to the immediate area, Carmel, Monterey, the City, wine country and everything beside the game itself.”
WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE LAST TIME
Unlike in February 2016, there’s no longer a golf course or gravel parking lot across the street (Tasman Drive) from Levi’s Stadium.
Instead, a mega-development is in its initial phase of construction. The 240-acre project called “Related Santa Clara” will cluster residential (1,680 units), commercial (5.7 million square feet) and retail (500,000 square feet) with hotels, restaurants and a park. Meanwhile, a high-rise housing complex is already being built, and it towers kitty-corner from Levi’s Stadium.
“We do believe that’s a major addition to Levi’s Stadium and fan experience in general,” Guido said. “Right now it’s a little bit of an inconvenience for parking, because things are under construction, but in the future, it will only enhance our efforts to book these large-scale events, similar to the Super Bowl and the World Cup.”
As for Levi’s Stadium itself, upgrades are planned, but one noticeable improvement literally took root years ago. The grass field is now considered among the NFL’s best surfaces, as testified last year by then-49ers kicker Robbie Gould. In Super Bowl 50, however, several Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers players slipped on the sod, until Peyton Manning and Denver prevailed 24-10.
The 49ers and Levi’s Stadium now have 2 ½ years to spruce up before hosting again. The NFL recently agreed to loan them $125 million for upgrades in suites, seats and scoreboards. That work is expected to begin after this coming 10th season since the 49ers moved from now-razed Candlestick Park. Super Bowl 50 attracted 71,088 fans, and Guido said the Super Bowl 60 crowd won’t be any smaller, nor much bigger.
HOST CITY HISTORY
Two Super Bowls in an 11-year span? Not bad, considering the only other time the Bay Area hosted the Super Bowl was in January 1985 at Stanford Stadium, where the 49ers won their second Lombardi Trophy by defeating the Miami Dolphins.
“We know what hosting the Super Bowl can do for our region and the City, and we’re excited to have the opportunity to welcome Super Bowl LX to the Bay,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed tweeted.
“Thrilled that @LevisStadium is primed to host the Super Bowl LX. This is an incredible opportunity for our city. Good luck @49ers — San Jose would be honored to have you!” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan tweeted.
Thrilled that @LevisStadium is primed to host the Super Bowl LX. This is an incredible opportunity for our city. Good luck @49ers — San Jose would be honored to have you! https://t.co/wiHRrltXED
— Mayor Matt Mahan (@MattMahanSJ) May 19, 2023
Lisa Gillmor, Santa Clara’s mayor, did not immediately issue a comment via Twitter; she’s had a contentious relationship for years with the 49ers and their operating of Levi’s Stadium.
“I’ve been in the job for a couple of months and have already spent a lot of time with the City of Santa Clara,” said Zaileen Janmohamed, president and CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee. “They were fully supportive for the Super Bowl bid and we are in ongoing conversations now in how to operationalize both events.”
Next season’s Super Bowl will be the first at the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium, and the 2024 season will end at the event’s most frequented venue, New Orleans’ Superdome, which will host for an eighth time.
Building a new stadium typically sets up a city to host a Super Bowl, for those that can’t offer tropical climates in the winter such as Miami, host city of 11 Super Bowls.
But getting the Super Bowl to return is no guarantee. Among the cities that have hosted once in the past 20 years: Jacksonville (2005), Arlington, Texas (2011), East Rutherford, New Jersey (2014), Minneapolis (2018), Atlanta (2019) and Inglewood (2022), though the Rams’ and Chargers’ Southern California home is reportedly seeking the 2027 Super Bowl.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
How much money will be infused into the Bay Area is up for interpretation.
A study of Super Bowl 50 from a research firm, Sportsimpacts, had a “net positive impact” of over $240 million for the Bay Area, according to that Super Bowl’s host committee. More than half of those revenues benefitted San Francisco (57%), and the next most went to San Jose (12.3%) and Santa Clara (7.2%).
San Francisco’s Moscone Center hosted the NFL Experience and was the hub for most visitors. A report from the city controller stated that San Francisco made $2 million off Super Bowl activities, with $11.6 million in revenues and $9.6 million in expenses.
The Super Bowl host committee estimated 1.1 million fans (visitors and residents) attended San Francisco’s activities, adding that $13 million was raised for Bay Area youth organizations.
The Super Bowl also affords regions immense exposure through the television broadcast, and this past Super Bowl was the most-watched telecast in history, with 115.1 million watching the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Arizona. That was the same stadium that hosted the 2015 Super Bowl, a year ahead of Santa Clara’s first time hosting.
Deposits are being accepted for Super Bowl seating and hotel options through NFL partner “On Location” hospitality services.
“My vision for the host committee and Super Bowl LX is to inspire a cultural movement in our region,” Janmohamed said. “We have the right knowhow. We have excitement and anticipation in our communities. And we are in the heart of Silicon Valley. The excitement, that the NFL also has, is our ability to create what’s next in fan engagement and fan excitement.”
