49ers say it's NOT possible [Music] here's Brody Brazil in this video I'm going to address the same question that keeps coming up this same time of year every season for 49ers fans and that is is there any way to get shade on the east side of Levi Stadium whether it's a roof or a covering can there be a fix to what a lot of fans are saying is a problem is a flaw with Levi Stadium and quite honestly you can see it here a little bit in this photo how the Eastern seats are getting blasted by the sun which is coming in from this direction at this point there's only a little bit of shade from this structure right here of all the luxury suites and boxes in the Press Box but eventually as we'll show you here in this video what happens through the course of a day is the shade covers most of this but then the sun just keeps hitting those stands on the east side of the stadium and as fans will tell you it gets a little bit uncomfortable in the early season games so this is from August of 2018 I mean Matt mayoko has been covering this for a long time like the team for a long time but this issue for a long time at this point the stadium was what four or 5 years old this was from the 49ers Talk podcast in an article that may mayoko wrote for NBC Sports after soliciting the opinions of numerous Architects and civil engineers the 49ers found that there is no reasonable way to provide shade for those who sit in the sunny seats on the east side of Levi Stadium the 49ers have investigated all solutions wait hang on I don't know why purple pop up all solutions to provide relief from the heat at Levi Stadium but the design of the stadium along with FAA regulations makes all possible Renovations or construction impractical now impractical is an interesting word there doesn't mean impossible it means impractical it's not worth it it would ruin something it might actually diminish another part of the experience impractical you know the definition of it but not impossible 49ers team president ALG Guido as part of that podcast Who Matt was interviewing said this exact quote we can't add shade it's not possible so for the purpose of this video right you could almost render everything I'm about to say here down the road irrelevant because the people in charge and that's their perspective and that's the work and the research they've done saying it's not possible okay so I just want you to understand that's where things stand before I go too deep into anything else here what I can tell the fans is we're committed to making their experience as best as it possibly can we understand there might be a game or two early in the season that might be warm we cannot add shade we cannot build a The Sun & Shade problem roof and again just to recap this photo actually it's not even a photo it's just the satellite image here from I think Apple Maps but it goes to give you a lot better detail look this side is in the shade that's the west side it's because of this Sky Box structure and this east side is getting hit pretty hard by the Sun now look in Santa Clara there's a lot of days where clouds aren't present uh that sun can beat on you from this direction in the months of August and September and quite honestly even into October the climate is a little bit warm down there in the South Bay and I think as we all understand and maybe even reme remember at one point this whole stadium design was actually planned and meant for a new facility at Candlestick Point like the entire rendering in this open space on the end zone and this open space to kind of look out at either the bay or the skyline that was all meant to be done for Candlestick point at least as I understand it as I looked at the renderings from back in the day this design looks a lot like what they were planning initially for San Francisco so it's almost like they said hey well we've already got this designed and we like it so let's just put this in Santa Clara by the way I'm somebody who covered the construction of this Stadium I remember doing like a report right here in what used to be the parking lot of Great America back in the day right outside the team headquarters that's an old building this is an old facility that's been there forever that was uh their team headquarters for a long time and so that existed and that's where we showed up and then there used to be this big parking lot right across the street anyway so you understand that all of this is coming together and maybe the the hindsight might be a little bit more clear that some precautions should have The FAA problem with height been taken but let's go back to that FAA part for just a second because you know I might know somebody who's kind of centered around Aviation I might know somebody who's a commercial pilot and certified flight instructor it's me of course all right so this is San Jose airport right so there's SJC and here's Levi Stadium right so I want to point those things out what I'll do is I'll just draw the arrow on the map I'll take that away and if you're wondering like how far away we are from the very end of the runway so uh the runways going this direction are 30 you've got three Z right you've got three Z left there used to be a third run runway in there but uh they don't they don't use it anymore but what we're talking about here is how far away the airport is from Levi Stadium and that distance is 2.45 Miles and I just want you to put this in your brain for just a second so I can explain it here as we go along it's also important to know that the height which I'm pretty sure this is correct the height of Levi Stadium is about 176 ft at its peak maybe that's the top of the lights but that's the top of the structure 176 ft and that that kind of makes sense okay so now that you understand this it's also important to know that air planes land at San Jose in two different directions typically during normal weather situations and normal operations they're Landing this way right so they're Landing this way and then they're taking off this way so this is not a problem right when they're taking off I mean they're gaining altitude so fast and usually they're doing that big right right hand turnout on the departure don't mean to get technical here but usually taking off over Levi Stadium is not a problem and that's normal operation the problem is when the weather gets bad usually and the winds are coming out of the south then and we are landing from the north and airplanes are getting just a little bit lower over Levi Stadium so here in lies the question if we're using the opposite Runway we're using Runway one two wait a second what am i showing you right here I'm showing you an approach plate for the ILS or localizer Runway one two right approach yes we're geeking out of here but what I'm what I'll zoom in here and show you is that when airplanes land from this direction how high are they and is like really if it's 176 ft and you made a roof like another 25 30 40 ft higher is that really going to be a problem essentially what did we say that Levi Stadium was about 2 1/2 miles away from the runway so now we can come back over here let me do blue and now we can say there's the end of the runway so this is kind of the profile view Levi Stadium is somewhere I don't know right out there you have to be you have to be greater than 520 ft I'm reading this chart for you here at you can't descend below 520 ft until you're inside 1.4 miles so you at least have to be that and quite honestly at 2 and 1/2 miles I'll estimate this on the Glide slope that's what this is here that you're probably going to be about 750 ft above the ground so if the stadium is 200 ft Max even with a roof you still have about 550 ft of clearance now is that a lot do you ever want to push it to that close not necessarily but here's the thing if you look at this approach plate there's other obstructions out there which are about at the same distance there's one that's I'll write it um I'll write it bigger here so you can see there's one right there that's 223 ft there's another one right below it that's 251 ft so like you've got other things out there that are even higher and they are like right on the Final Approach path they're on that that localizer course for Runway one two right at San Jose so okay so what I want to make clear here is I'm not necessarily countering all we'll see we'll see this in a second wa hang on I don't work for the FAA I'm just a pilot and a flight instructor but I can understand that like the FAA might have some concerns here and maybe they already needed approval to get it as high as they could but I'm not sure whether that's the ultimate barrier or if it's just an inconvenience I'm just saying I don't know for sure I'm just throwing it out there I just want people to to Added roof height? understand this so here we go now with could you put a roof on Levi Stadium or some type of covering but I think the critical part is if we've already established that that that's about 170 ft how much extra height is all of that going to take up because if that height requires another like 50 ft 70t that's a lot like if it's a big arching roof that might be more of a problem but if you can make it like a super low profile shade type situation and I guess and by the way it should be clear I don't know who came up with this rendering I literally found this on I think Reddit I think that's where the Google search led me to Reddit so I can't give credit I wish I could I don't know who came up with this but it's interesting right whoever whoever has designed this has certainly made it interesting uh I don't I do not exactly know where this came from but could you do it like this now the other problem like there's there's more to it than just the height part there's the logistical part Could you actually do this so that you put these sorry so that you put these support structures in and all of this actually works like this kind of impedes with the rest of your Stadium design is this ugly does this work do you really want a big fabric piece over the stadium just for a couple games in September every year like I know fans will say that when it happens but do they actually want to make like this permanent change to something that is an inconvenience a couple times a year now in Florida they did this at the I'll call it Joe Robbie Stadium since Would 49ers pay $300M like Miami? I'm old school the Marlins used to play there the Dolphins have been playing there forever it's always been this outside Stadium structure until recently when they said hey we want to host a Super Bowl we're going to put a roof not over the field but we're going to cover all the seats we're going to cover the seats from the Sun so they built this and from what I understand the cost is not clear but I think it was anywhere from 300 to $550 million they did some other stuff they built I think that building right there and but I don't know how much the roof exactly cost but we put it this way we got to be talking at least 200 250 million for that structure to design it to engineer it and to actually put it up and maintain it but it just goes to show you something like this is actually possible so here are my takeaways and let's begin Takeaways with that number one anything is possible to design and build we're living in 2024 so for somebody to say well we can't do it it's just we it's impossible no it is possible it's just not practical it's impractical I think that was the word and look that might be the case we could just end our conversation right there but any is possible let's declare that I would also say that for the 49ers and for those who run Levi Stadium it is a problem but it's not truly a problem you know what I what color works good here is teal a good one yeah there we go it's not truly a problem until it's an actual problem because really before it's an actual problem it's just an inconvenience and people will deal with it for a couple games a year and it's not perfect I will say this for people who sit on those seats on the Eastern inside and they want to get out of the Sun for a little bit they do miss part of the game watching it but you know where they go The Concourse area or the club area you know what they do there buy more things get more drinks eat more food you know like it's not really an inconvenience uh sorry it's not really a problem until it's an actual problem and they've got to be forced to change until then it's just an inconvenience so think about that and then lastly if you do this like I saw that design and I saw how kind of I don't know it it makes the design look worse it makes it it's it's an afterthought right it it it's a modification that just didn't fit in with the original maybe somebody else could come up with a better design but the questions are like do you do a fabric roof do you do a full roof is is Levi stadium a dome now do you do it carport style kind of like T-Mobile Park up in Seattle now that's a retractable roof but it can open it can shut it kind of sits above the stadium but again we can't do too much height here and would any of this ruin the whole thing thing again I think it's important to realize here yes is it going to be hot for a couple games we've realized that some years are just going to be better than others some years are going to be worse than others weatherwise and that sun sitting right on your face but are you thinking that you're willing to like modify this whole a Blue on Blue Brazil come on are you do you want to modify all that just to protect this side for I mean that's a lot of seats and it's that's that's where your blueco collar fans are sitting right up here no question about it how do you how do you do that at a right cost to make it worth it so you don't ruin the rest of this beautiful outdoor stadium there's just a lot to weigh in on here but I think the point is anything is possible not everything is practical you've made it here to the end of this video let me know what you think in the comments section down below also don't forget to give this video a thumbs up that obviously helps me and this video and this channel I would like that but I would also love it especially these days if you just take one second go down there hit that subscribe button that way I definitely get to see you back here next time