With less than four weeks until Super Bowl 50, Levi’s Stadium is decorated with a large mural of the Lombardi Trophy, SANTA CLARA, Calif., Monday, Jan. 11, 2016. (Carl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
Santa Clara will be hosting another Super Bowl. And this time, a week’s worth of festivals should be held.
On Monday, NFL owners awarded the 60th Annual Levi’s Stadium Super Bowl in February 2026.
2016’s Super Bowl 50 left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see it return to the bay. Poor planning, terrible traffic, bad weather (sunshine, upper deck fans scorching), and a downright terrible game all make the first Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium the last. It was a result that made me believe that it would be.
Sure, the 49ers and the NFL will try to correct their mistakes during Super Bowl week. But the easiest solution isn’t to go to San Francisco and use the Chase Center or Oracle Park for your event. No, there is a weekly growing list of festivals taking place near the stadium.
Super Bowl LX should be Silicon Valley’s Super Bowl, San Jose Fiesta and South Bay Celebration.
The last time the Super Bowl was held in our area, the week’s events centered around San Francisco, which still pretends to be represented by the 49ers.
Yes, the SAP Center hosted opening night earlier in the week and the team practiced at Stanford and San Jose State, and it was a blast. Big game and big events were in the north. Market Street in San Francisco was flooded with American favorite drugs, football, and the Moscone Center, Ferry Building and Pier 70 were all hotspots throughout the week.
San Jose and South Bay were afterthoughts. When people staying in San Francisco hotels need to get to the game on Sunday, no one seems to think about traffic jams on Highway 101.
No, the stadium is not “right down the street”. That’s a rookie mistake.
It’s too typical. In San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Alameda counties, he has more than 4 million people, and they are all too easily forgotten when we talk about “The Bay.”
Despite some population decline, San Jose remains the largest city in the Bay Area and one of the largest in the United States. And unlike many of the low-density sprawls of Texas, Arizona, and Florida, it’s also a real city. But the heart of Silicon Valley is treated like Sacramento by outsiders (and some insiders, too).
So while most of the lofty “financial impact” numbers being touted by PR agencies are bogus, I think San Jose, Santa Clara County, and the South Bay, which actually host the Super Bowl this time, are worth it. .
The reason Levi’s Stadium won the LX Super Bowl bid is simple. This is because it operates without opposition.
With the World Cup in North America in the summer of 2026, many of the NFL’s first-choice stadiums will need to renovate their fields at the end of the NFL season to better accommodate other types of football.
However, Levi’s is ready.
And while San Jose and the South Bay are not unopposed for their festivities of the week, after decades of being ranked second—in hindsight, the area deserves some recognition over The City. Deserved.
It’s worth admiring for itself.
It’s not that the region doesn’t have enough corporate capital to make it happen.
And after receiving a large amount of public funding from the city of Santa Clara, all the 49ers can do is campaign to make Super Bowl 1 a South Bay event.
San Jose, in particular, should be the centerpiece of Super Bowl Week. Much of the news about this city is heartbreaking and bleak. But like any big city, San Jose is constantly evolving, and there are many signs that this current change is for the better. Between now and 2026, we hope all the positive things are celebrated often, but we should put that party on the books anyway.
I want to see the bustle of Santana Row and San Pedro Square. Let’s extend Park’s Christmas to he February—you know the theme.
Welcome all corporate VPs and big media brains to the cities and regions where modern work really takes place.
Invite the world to part of the Gulf they have mistakenly overlooked and underestimated for too long.
We’re really going to do it again, so let’s do it well. Celebrate the South Bay, Silicon Valley and San Jose this time.
