Bay Area hosts get ceremonial Super Bowl handoff for 2026 Levi's Stadium game
With Super Bowl LIX in the books, all eyes are on the Bay Area as the countdown begins for Levi's Stadium hosting Super Bowl LX next year.
The official handover ceremony was held Monday. The game in 2026 will mean a huge boost for the region's economy a decade after the stadium played host to Super Bowl 50 in 2016.
"We've been here before," said Host Committee CEO Zaileen Janmohamed. "In 2016, we hosted an unforgettable Super Bowl at Levi's Stadium. But there's no doubt that football, it's audience, and the Super Bowl itself has gotten so much bigger since then."
Super Bowl 50 was estimated to bring in $250 million to the local economy. The figure expected from Super Bowl LX is nearly triple that.
The Ferry Building and downtown San Francisco lit up for the game, with more than a million people taking part in events like Super Bowl City and the Super Bowl experience.
At the ceremony Monday morning, instead of a torch, a football was passed to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the Bay Area is ready to show off for football fans, but noted they should not expect a repeat of 2016.
"We're doing things a little differently this time around. We're activating the entire region," Mahan said. "We're showing off the technology of tomorrow. And from San Francisco to San Jose, whether residents or visitors are attending the game or not, there will be something for everyone."
The plans for what will happen and where are still being formulated, but Harbir Bhatia, who heads up the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, said the South Bay is expecting a lot more of the $600 million pie.
"That's a big impact, right?" said Bhatia. "And we hope that Santa Clara and San Jose, as South Bay cities, take a much bigger piece of that pie than we did last time. Last time it was literally 7% for us and 12% for San Jose. I'd like to see it upwards of 30s and maybe, if we're lucky, to the 40s in the collective South Bay, because the games are really here."
It's not just the Super Bowl coming to Levi's; the stadium will also host the World Cup in 2026. It will be the first time in history a stadium is hosting both events in the same year.
The host committee has also announced a partnership with Tipping Point, a local nonprofit dedicated to fighting poverty. They plan to create a workforce training program for low-income people they hope will lead to stable, higher-paying jobs after the sporting events are finished. But one man's boom can be another man's bust.
In 2016, road closures created an economic wasteland for some restaurants near the stadium. At Mikayla's Cafe, employee Teresita Jimenez explained what happened.
"When game day came it was actually, like, the slowest day we've probably had," she said after Super Bowl 50. "We actually closed early because it probably cost more money to keep this place open. It's kind of crazy how there would be no one here when there's thousands of people super close by."
