I’m on wonky internet in an undisclosed location, but here are the top headlines from Sunday’s first-ever San Francisco 49ers game at their new stadium in Santa Clara:
- “Levi’s Stadium review: Food runs out, 49ers struggle, fun had by all” (CBS Sports). Highlights: There were no lines for the bathrooms, and 49ers fans really like $12 meat sandwiches.
- “The race to Levi’s Stadium: By car, Caltrain, Amtrak, BART, and VTA” (San Francisco Chronicle). Highlights: All four Chronicle reporters got to the game by kickoff, though it took the BART rider two hours and 16 minutes. (The reporter who drove made it from Mill Valley in an hour and 18 minutes, which isn’t terrible coming from Marin County.)
- “49ers fans complain of ‘unbearable’ heat at Levi’s Stadium amid fan’s death” (San Jose Mercury News). Highlights: The sun, an infrequently appearing feature in San Francisco, was “unbearable” and “miserable,” and most fans fled the seats before the end of the game, some to wait on long lines for ice cream. And a man sitting in direct sun and “just pouring sweat” died of a heart attack in the third quarter.
So, new 49ers stadium overall report: Great place to eat and go to the bathroom, not impossible to get to if you leave enough time, don’t stay in your seats to watch the game on a sunny day or you’ll maybe die. I think in headlinese that qualifies as “mixed reviews.”
…all of which brings us back to the topic of viable alternatives for the Davis family to leverage in negotiating with Oakland (and, likely, themselves). If you’re going to die of heat stroke by the third quarter in ordinary people clothes, imagine how fast to a Raider Nation pensioner will bake inside his own protective covering. Back to the Alamodome* for a moment: is there any sense that this venue is even NFL ready, or what it might take to bring it up to the demands NFL owners make now of stadia? Put differently, if Dr Death gets to enjoy some air conditioning in the Alamodome for a few years instead of cooking on the halfshell in Santa Clara, how long before the Davises extort SA for new digs? Finally, to the *… Mrs DGA pointed out yesterday that the Alamodome is the perfect venue for the Raiders, given that the Alamo itself isn’t exactly known for a strong defense or, you know, a commitment to excellence on the wins front. She’s married to a Raiders fan.
Sad about the fan death obviously. And one assumes it could have happened in any location given the apparent weather.
However, it does remind me of an old Dilbert cartoon in which his company’s product is killing their customers. Given the task of spinning this as a positive for upper management, Dilbert eventually arrives at “Decline in unsatisfied customers” as a reasonable (and sort of honest) solution.
I think the NFL could go for something like that…
@DGA – Do you really think Davis would use a fan’s death as leverage?
From the article
“It’s unclear if the heat contributed to his death, as the authorities declined to speculate. Dr. Cesar Molina, a cardiologist at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View and a former board member for the local American Heart Association, said it was possible, but hard to tell without knowing the man’s full medical history.”
The guys blood alcohol level would be important to know. It is stupid to blame this death on the stadium. The real story is NorCal doesn’t know the sun can be harmful to your health. Jeez
Here’s something from SCPF about “Animal Farmland” aka Santa Clara and how the council is going to gorge on free, unreported tickets. Everytime you think they can’t get lower—they get lower….
Santa Clara, CA. August 19, 2014 — In a display of questionable ethics, the Santa Clara City Council has proposed to pass, without discussion, an ordinance allowing them to receive unlimited free tickets to events at the new Levi’s Stadium without having to disclose the gifts to the public — including tickets to the Super Bowl.
The free tickets, which were originally intended for low-income residents, charities, veterans, seniors, and the disabled, are now being re-designated for city staff, City Council members, and Commissioners and their families.
The proposal has been scheduled for vote at the Aug 19, 2014 meeting, but consolidated with other “non-discussion” items on what is called the “consent calendar”. Items on a consent calendar are voted on in a block, without discussion, debate, or input from citizens. A member of council or the public may request that an item be removed from the consent calendar and rescheduled, allowing for discussion before a vote.
Local charities, veterans groups, seniors, and advocates for the disabled are outraged.
“It’s like stealing candy from a child in a wheelchair who has cancer.” — said one resident, who prefers to remain anonymous. “My brother, who has Down syndrome, will never get to see a game, because Jamie Matthews or Pat Kolstad will be sitting in his seat!”
Two of the City Council members seeking re-election have recently signed the City’s ethics pledge for which the City won a statewide award. A pledge which stated purpose is to assure that “decision-makers are…accountable to the people they serve.”
“I just don’t understand. They stated publicly that they would not do this, and now they are going back on their promise.” — said a resident of a North side neighborhood group.
The proposed ordinance was not made publicly available until Friday night and then put on the consent calendar. No votes specific to a proposed ordinance are recorded in the consent calendar and no public input is allowed.
The proposed ordinance states that the recipients of the tickets do not have to report them as a gift.
Gonna take Niners fans a few weeks to realize they no longer need to bundle up to come to games. Time to put the parkas away and bust out shorts and t-shirts.
Fan death is a feature, not a bug!
Levi’s Stadium debut is so exciting you need to sign a release for heart attacks. And I thought passing out earplugs in the Clink was being overdramatic.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/14/seahawks-roar-record-hearing-loss_n_3922733.html
@JohnO if we don’t sensationalize headlines newspapers and this blog would not get any traffic.
Raiders to SA will not happen. All this is cowboy country!! Some earlier posted that Latinos would cheer for the raiders, hahaha! Smh
Unless there is an enclave of raider fans in our city that I don’t know about and can fill a stadium. This will not happen.
“Raiders to SA will not happen. All this is cowboy country!!”
It may not happen because if it is just to get more leverage in Oakland, who knows maybe Jerry Jones could pull enough favors to kill it, however your kidding yourself if you think people who settled on cheering for Dallas because they did not have a team in their city would demand it not to happen.
Plus the Cowboys have been pretty lack luster since after the 90s, so you would have to be at least 35 to even remember some of their good years.
Fans are not gona demand it not happen. They will just not buy Season Tickets, well not enough to sale the place out.
The cowboys can be terrible and they still sale out cowboys stadium. On sports talk radio and our youth football leagues the talk has not been about how cool this maybe.
The talk has been about how this is a joke, the raiders have barley been better than a good HS team for the last 20 years. This excuse for a football team wants to move to SA???
Good luck to them!!
My earliest memories of big time college sports in the late 50’s early 60’s in the South as a 10 or 11 year old were seeing fan after fan being carried out on a stretcher, probably from heart attacks. I think that was when I began to question the system. Why weren’t all those adult fans at home exercising, taking a nap, etc?.
santa clara jay said on August 19, 2014 at 3:32 pm said:
“Santa Clara, CA. August 19, 2014 — In a display of questionable ethics, the Santa Clara City Council has proposed to pass, without discussion, an ordinance allowing them to receive unlimited free tickets to events at the new Levi’s Stadium without having to disclose the gifts to the public — including tickets to the Super Bowl.”
What are the federal and state income tax ramifications of elected officials receiving gifts of significant value?
I keep hearing people say the San Antonio pivot is to get leverage over Oakland. What leverage do you think that affords them? What do you think they’re trying to get out of Oakland? No one ever answers those questions. Because the answers are quite simply, they didn’t need any more leverage than they already have with Santa Clara sitting there, and there is nothing else they can get out of Oakland.
Anything the Raiders are doing is not a leverage game as there is no leverage left to be gained over Oakland.
I am not sure about California taxes, but US taxes allow the Santa Clara city council to deduct the gifts as an entertainment expense given that the city council hold a meeting at the stadium.
@Dan 3:42pm
Weather during football season was mild to very warm at Candlestick, because we get Indian Summer during late September to early November, then Winter would set in. The sport that suffered the most during a season at the Stick was Baseball, the SF Giants.
Scott Myers, I’m not sure what the tax rules are of gifted tickets. Even if it’s declarable income–it’s still a pretty nice deal.
I wasn’t at the council meeting on Tuesday, but enough concerned residents raised a stink about this that the city manager (who claimed he hadn’t read the policy he had signed off on because his assistant had written it!) said that would take another look and revise it.
Santa Clara likes to tout itself as an “ethical” city but it’s almost a black comedy when they do this. Obviously, the staff and council and their families were ready to start enjoying events for free with not oversight–they got caught with their collective hands in the cookie jar. More on the Santa Clara Plays Fair Facebook page if you’re interested.
Field problems at Levi’s already:
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/20/6643139/wild-pitch-49ers-halt-practice.html
The building does, however, have good Feng Shui:
http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/ostler/article/Feng-shui-consultant-tours-Levi-s-Stadium-to-find-5701845.php
(What a crock.)
Try attending an daytime outdoor event in Florida in August – September, makes the south bay “heat” a walk in the park.
Those in that mallpark for late schedule night starts will find it just as raw as WindyStick – sans the fog – because of the semi-desert conditions that the San Who-say? area has.
Of course there’s a solution to being subject to weather conditions – buy a suite! Can’t be much of a problem for sportsheep in such an affluent area, can it? Home TV is always a viable “experience”, right?