After the confetti has fallen and the Lombardi Trophy is presented at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday, the countdown to Super Bowl LX will begin as all eyes turn to Santa Clara.
Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, will host its second Super Bowl on Feb. 8, 2026 — almost 10 years to the day since the last time the Big Game came to town. Nearly 112 million viewers tuned in to Super Bowl 50 to watch the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos defeat the Carolina Panthers and a star-studded halftime show that featured Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno Mars.
Beyoncé, Chris Martin of Coldplay, and Bruno Mars, left to right, perform during halftime of Super Bowl 50 between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
On Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, along with New Orleans officials, will pass the torch — or rather the ceremonial football — to a Bay Area delegation that includes 49ers CEO Jed York and President Al Guido, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Zaileen Janmohamed, the CEO and president of the Bay Area Host Committee.
The bidding process typically starts several years out — the NFL made the announcement in May 2023 that Levi’s Stadium would host Super Bowl LX. Janmohamed said that while winning the bid is exciting, “it almost doesn’t feel real.”
“You’ve submitted a bid that’s on paper,” she said in a phone interview Wednesday from the Super Bowl LIX media center in New Orleans. “Today as I walk around, it’s almost like butterflies in my stomach in that there’s this nervous anticipation of ‘OK, we’re up next.’”
Ahead of Sunday’s game, members of the Bay Area Host Committee, along with local tourism officials and representatives from Santa Clara, San Jose and San Francisco, will participate in what Janmohamed called “two days of pretty intense meetings” with the NFL and the New Orleans Super Bowl Host Committee.
Zaileen Janmohamed, CEO and president of the Bay Area Host Committee, is shown at a news conference announcing that the 2025 NBA All-Star Game will be played in San Francisco at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Back in Santa Clara, $200 million in renovations are in progress on the nearly 11-year-old stadium. While the home of the 49ers is one of the newest stadiums in the NFL, Francine Melendez Hughes, the executive vice president and general manager of stadium operations, said it “needs a little bit of a facelift.”
The stadium will have new video boards for the 2025 season that will be the largest 4K display in the league and a new LED field-lighting system is being installed. The suites have also been undergoing renovations over the last year.
Francine Melendez Hughes, executive vice president and general manager, stadium operations of Levi’s Stadium, on Oct. 17, 2023, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
“When you talk about the Super Bowl, it kind of gives me goosebumps because it’s just such an exciting event,” Hughes said. “It’s a world-class event. That single day, millions of people are going to be watching, and so for us it’s all about the fan engagement, making sure that they’re excited and really just creating an environment that’s welcoming to everyone.”
Part of creating that environment is keeping everyone safe. New Orleans and the NFL stepped up security for Super Bowl LIX following a New Year’s Day attack where an individual drove a pickup truck through a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring dozens of others. The Sugar Bowl, which was supposed to be played later that day at the Superdome, was postponed to Jan. 2.
Richard Fitting, a captain with the Santa Clara Police Department, said that public safety planning began immediately following the announcement that the Super Bowl would be coming back to Levi’s Stadium.
At the time of Super Bowl 50, the stadium had been open for less than two years. Fitting, a more than two-decade veteran with the department, said that by February 2016, they had less than a dozen major events under their belt. Nearly a decade later, they’re more prepared.
“Every major event is a repetition for enhanced readiness and fine-tuning operational plans and operational implementation,” Fitting said. “I’m just really proud that each of those 200 major events these last 11 years have readied us for an event as significant as the Super Bowl.”
Members of the National Guard are stationed in front of Levi’s Stadium for Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)
For Super Bowl 50, much of the pageantry took place an hour’s drive north in San Francisco. Football fans flooded the area around the northeastern stretch of Market Street and packed events at the Moscone Center, the Ferry Building and Pier 70.
Although the SAP Center in San Jose hosted Opening Night, many South Bay leaders felt slighted that the 49ers’ namesake city — not Silicon Valley — was receiving the spotlight and the tourism money.
This year, San Jose is stepping up and says it’s the destination to “Fly, Stay and Play” in 2026.
Mahan, who was elected mayor in 2022, said that the city is looking to create a “world-class fan experience in downtown San Jose.” Planning has already begun in collaboration with local groups like the San Jose Sports Authority, the San Jose Chamber of Commerce and the San Jose Downtown Association to create “fan activations” around the Super Bowl. Mahan pictures it as a series of concerts, block parties, watch parties and more that leverages the city’s public spaces like Arena Green and Plaza de Cesar Chavez.
“We have so many amenities here,” Mahan said. “The vision to create this sort of high-quality, engaging fan experience where you can fly in, stay downtown, you’re 10 minutes from the airport and then you’re really only about 10 to 15 minutes from the stadium and have a great experience here in the Bay Area’s safest big city.”
Over the next year, Mahan said the council will be reviewing several policies in preparation for 2026, including expediting permitting for special events. San Jose also recently hired Tommy O’Hare, an Olympian in short track speed skating, to serve as the city’s sports and special events director and help bring the vision for a downtown fan experience to life.
Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor, who was on the council in 2016, feels like her city was much more engaged last time around. While the Mission City hosted several fan events around Super Bowl 50, she said nothing has been planned for next year.
Fans cheer as the Carolina Panthers take to the field before the start of Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)
“I think the concerns we have are greater than they were back then,” Gillmor said, referring to public safety, traffic and transportation and the impact the event will have on North Santa Clara residents. “To date, our public is really unaware of our planning. We really haven’t engaged our public at all. I’m concerned and I think that we are behind.”
The Bay Area Host Committee estimates the economic impact of Super Bowl LX on the region will be anywhere from $370 million to $630 million — with $100 million to $160 million of that in Santa Clara County.
But Roger Noll, a professor emeritus of economics at Stanford, said these reports are often misleading and draw incorrect inferences. As an example, he said a Santa Clara hotel might raise its prices for the event, but it won’t hire any extra workers so the money will just flow back to the corporation. Instead, he frames them as organizers trying to win local support.
“It makes you think, ‘We’re all going to be richer because of this event,’” he said. “For the vast majority of people, the event will have essentially no effect on them except it might make their life a little bit worse because of congestion because they’re not going to go to the event, they’re not going to go to the Super Bowl, and they’re not going to be part of the celebration.”
Once Super Bowl LX wraps up, Santa Clara will have a new spotlight to look forward to as Levi’s Stadium is set to host six FIFA World Cup matches June 13 – July 1, 2026.
It’s a first for two of the biggest sporting events in the world — no stadium has ever hosted a Super Bowl and a World Cup in the same calendar year. Janmohamed said she’s not sure if it will happen again.
“I’m hoping for the region that it instills a sense of pride that we won these things. The world is coming to the place that we live in, that we work in, that our kids grow up in,” she said. “And that means something.”
