Two of the biggest sporting events on earth are coming to Santa Clara in a couple of years, and the 49ers are acting accordingly.
The team announced on Tuesday that it’s investing $200 million into upgrading Levi’s Stadium. Renovations will focus on enhanced Wi-Fi technology for this season and, for 2025, significantly enlarged video boards.
including enhanced Wi-Fi technology for this season and, for 2025, video boards the team says will give the stadium the largest 4K display in the NFL. Luxury suite upgrades are also in progress.
Opened in 2014, Levi’s Stadium is one of the NFL’s newest stadiums. But with both the Super Bowl and World Cup events coming to town in 2026, the facility is undergoing significant renovations nonetheless.
Some of the renovations are already complete, the team said, and the rest is expected to be finished next year.
“We have been hard at work renovating and upgrading parts of the stadium for fans, but the work isn’t done yet,” Francine Melendez Hughes, executive vice president and general manager of stadium operations, said in a statement. “Some of our biggest projects are still to come. We are excited to continue innovating to give fans one of the best viewing experiences in the NFL.”
Since Levi’s Stadium opened a decade ago, the Vikings, Falcons, Raiders, Rams and Chargers have all opened new homes.
The 49ers claim Levi’s Stadium’s new video boards will offer the NFL’s largest 4K display, and that the playing surface will be illuminated better in prime-time games under an energy-conserving LED lighting system. The first feature is a common area of innovation across the league; last year, the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium 2023 renovations introduced the biggest curved video board in the country. SoFi Stadium’s double-sided, 360-foot 4K video board weighs 2.2 million pounds and is the largest in professional sports.
The Levi’s Stadium upgrades don’t include popular wish-list items like a sun-blocking roof, updates to their rarely open museum, or any money toward resolving ongoing contract disputes with Brandon Aiyuk and Trent Williams.
Super Bowl LX, on Feb. 8, 2026, will be the second Super Bowl played at Levi’s Stadium. Later in the year, the stadium will host six World Cup matches — five in the group stage and one in the round of 32.
Levi’s Stadium is publicly owned but managed by the 49ers in a private financing-public ownership arrangement. That setup has created years of acrimony and legal battles between the franchise and county’s Stadium Authority board.
According to trade publication Venues Now, the 49ers are financing 90% of the two-year, $200 million facelift, with the Santa Clara Stadium Authority funding the balance for maintenance and capital expenditure work.
