Levi's Stadium gets $200M upgrades for 49ers, FIFA, Super Bowl

[Music] here's Brody Brazil so here we are right around the corner from the start of another 49ers season and I know there's a lot of fans out there right now their primary focus and primary wonder is this will the team be spending I don't know maybe $200 million on two separate players named auk and Williams I guess we'll find that out yes or no in the near future but what we do know is as of today the San Francisco 49ers have pledged 200 million for upgrades at Levi Stadium it's a venue they've called home now for 10 years this will be season 11 it opened up back in 2014 and to No Surprise right you get to this point of a stadium in its existence and you have to start implementing the upgrades if you want to continue the success that it's had Levi Stadium broke around April of 2012 opened up in July 2014 when it opened the estimated cost was about $1.3 billion now that value has changed here in 2024 money which we'll talk about in just a second 68,000 plus seats 174 luxury suites all of those are getting upgraded as part of this $200 million I'll tell you where that 200 is going in just a second but obviously they've been hosting big events from Super Bowl 50 to FIFA soccer events to concerts Taylor Swift brought the tour in a couple times Levi Stadium is also set to host obviously FIFA World Cup matches when it comes around as well as Super Bowl 60 so they get 50 and 60 and also the timing of this $200 million you'd have to think they're announcing it now so that they can plan it through the course of this regular season so that they can execute it like next summer in time for the full next season and eventually the Super Bowl 60 that they will be hosting the improvements are this video board upgrades so they're going from the screens they've always had now to what will be the largest 4K screens of any NFL stadium on the North and South End zones they'll also upgrade the LED field lights so better coverage and you've seen this in stadiums nowadays with the LEDs they can kind of program them do a little bit of a light show they'll have much more capability to do cool things with those LED lights yes they're more energy efficient yes they may provide a more uh even lighting platform but they'll be upgrading the lights and it's kind of interesting too like when Levi Stadium came around we weren't yet at 4K and we weren't fully yet at like every light being led so it's kind of getting modernized of just the things that it barely missed when it came out in 2014 they're also putting in 1300 Wi-Fi 6 access points so they're really trying to make sure that when you go to a game or a concert or a match of any kind that your phone's going to work so that when you want to stream something live you want to share it with your friends why wouldn't you want your fans being your best ambassadors like in the moment look where I'm at look how beautiful this is is oh yeah you can see all my pictures instantly because I've got a good connection here the uh the Suites I think I said 170 something apparently 12 120 is the number I received are getting upgraded here and you have to understand that for big events is Super Bowl coming in they're trying to make sure that those premium spaces in the corporate side also get taken care of here so $200 million of perspective because some people might say well that's that's a lot of money some people will say wait a second I see teams and and municipalities put in $500 million into a stadium how come the 49ers only only need $200 million well the current cost with inflation with every everything else the current cost of Levi Stadium if they had to build it right now more like 1 Point call it $7 billion $200 million is about 12% of $1.67 billion so that is a significant amount I mean they're not rebuilding 12% of the stadium they're only doing scoreboards lighting system Wi-Fi and the suets right but 12% of the total cost if they built it again $280 million as of right now is the 2024 teams payroll and I don't mean coaches uh staff ront office I mean just the players so the 49ers aren't even spending a full season of players salary to upgrade their Stadium which they probably hope the upgrade will take them through another decade of playing football and other events there how about the contract Nick Bosa signed at the start of last year 5 years $170 million total okay so that's for one player for five years just one player they spend 170 million on so you can kind of see on one hand 200 is significant but on the other hand 200 is probably in their realm of things they can afford and especially if it somehow pays them back now I tried to do some research here on what a Super Bowl alone would generate for not only the team or the stadium but also the region they the estimates are all over the place anywhere from $300 million to $1.3 billion for the entire region now the team is not recouping necessarily a large portion of that it goes to hotels and restaurants and airports and all that stuff but when you host a Super Bowl inherently you do I think get something back on that so even if the 49ers were to get 50 million back of the 200 they spend this also upgrades the facility then they can make get more for events whether it's uh renting the place or tickets there's a lot to this a lot of moving pieces so here are my takeaways about this $200 million of upgrades number one and if I didn't mention this before I think I alluded to it but let me make it very clear this is privately funded so as much as I talk about here on my channel cities and counties and states and local government paying for upgrades of stadiums and the teams holding those those municipalities kind of like like hostage and saying if you don't do this we'll leave no no no the 49ers said we'll pay $200 million we'll do this we're just going to do this privately funded so for any kind of criticism or they're not doing the right things I want or like I don't know how the conversation can go much further than it's privately funded the conversation for me kind of ends right there good for the 49ers that's great this should kind of be a model that if you want to fix up your home kind of like if I want to fix up my home I got to pay for it who else is going to step in and necessarily pay for it so they're they're privately funding this I appreciate that I applaud that I do Wonder however how much cost is going to be passed on to the customers right like the sweets are better now maybe corporations are paying a little bit more to rent out those Suites maybe the rates go up that's fine that's on the companies that's a businesso business thing I just don't want to don't want to see the fans necessarily get you know rate rate hike hiked a little bit I don't want to see their prices go up uh because the stadium needed this because the team thought the St Stadium needed this um it's kind of a it's kind of like a a dog chasing its tail a little bit right it's the cycle of well we need more we need better well it's going to cost more and then the fans are like well we don't want more anyway um I also though on the flip side of that right on the flip side of I don't want to see costs go up exponentially for fans I do also realize that when you run a venue like this and it's competitive business of professional Sports here in 2024 fans expect a certain level of something now I don't know if it has to be the best out there but it's got to be it's got to be competitive to what fans are witnessing other fans getting in their stadiums and teams it's better to stay ahead of the upgrade curve now every 10 years for Levi Stadium that seems pretty it seems pretty frequent I think you could go 15 or 20 years uh but 10 years they're they've got a big couple big events coming up they're trying to get ahead of of this and if you don't if you don't do these upgrades you turn into the Oakland Coliseum and I'm talking about the 80s and 90s and even into the 2000s for the Coliseum I know they put Mount Davis up in the mid 90s that was not an upgrade in a variety of ways but my point is if you don't put something into the facility if you don't keep upgrading it another great example is right down the road from Levi Stadium sap Center they have spent more on sap Center to up up grade it over the years over its 30 plus years than they originally spent to build it at this point and the building looks great it's actually one of the oldest in the NHL but you never really know it especially when you see all the upgrades that have been happening this summer when you walk in the door you're going to be like wow this place is new still new again so it's better to stay ahead of that curve I do applaud the 49ers for paying for this and for staying ahead of the curve I would also say that if you're trying though to keep up like Sofi Stadium goes up and they've got that big Big Ring scoreboard or other venues across the country whatever the Buffalo Bills are doing like if you're going to try and play that keep up and catchup game you're just never going to be able to do it successfully you are always going to be behind that that chase keeping up is difficult it's near impossible so I hope the 49ers can just suffice Improvement I hope the Fan Experience is that much better uh and like I said it's $200 million of the team's money so good on them for committing to that now let's see if those contracts happen in the near future maybe by the time you're watching this one or both of them have happened uh you've made it here to the end of the video you know I really appreciate that Thumbs Up Down Below that'll greatly help me and this video and this channel I would like that by the way I would love it if you make sure right now that you go down there hit that subscribe button so I can definitely see you back here next time