The 49ers on Friday announced Levi’s Stadium will be opening at full capacity. There was an expectation that this would be the case, but no official announcement until Friday.
While COVID-19 cases, vaccination numbers and local guidelines are all trending in the right direction, the club isn’t out of the woods entirely. Their first home game is an exhibition matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs on August 14. That’s plenty of time for numbers to swing further in their favor, but it’s also a wide enough gap that the opposite could happen and local guidelines don’t allow for the outdoor arena to be filled with 68,500 fans.
Team President Al Guido released a statement on Twitter about the re-opening of the stadium, with the caption, “This moment has been a long time coming!”
This moment has been a long time coming! #49ers #FTTB pic.twitter.com/I2jGfAZMT2
— Al Guido (@AlGuido) May 21, 2021
The 49ers official Twitter account responded to Guido’s tweet by announcing the re-opening and thanking healthcare workers and public officials:
Barring changes to guidance, #LevisStadium will be back to full capacity for the 21-22 season! Thank you to the healthcare workers, public officials & all leading the CA vax campaign for making this possible.
More to come… In the meantime, we will remain CA’s biggest vax site! https://t.co/HTRNsg4UZb
— Levi's® Stadium (@LevisStadium) May 21, 2021
Santa Clara County in the final month of last season banned all contact sports in an effort to help quell COVID-19 cases, and forced the 49ers to uproot operations and move them to Arizona where no such restrictions were in place.
Now the team is set to host fans for the first time since January 2020 when they hosted the Packers in the NFC championship game. In a bit of poetic symmetry, the 49ers first regular-season game is set to be against those same Packers on Sunday Night Football in Week 3. Prior to that they’ll host a pair of preseason games agains the Chiefs and another against the Raiders on August 29.
