Opener will test plan for traffic
49ers urge fans to arrive early for game at 5:30
The 49ers opened their regular season last week with a win, but the team’s new Santa Clara stadium gets its first real test Sunday, with the toughest challenge likely to be getting the 70,000 fans and 4,000 stadium workers to and from the game.
Whether Levi’s Stadium’s patchwork transportation plan is up for the test remains to be seen. After four sporting events — two soccer matches and two NFL preseason games — the results have been mixed.
At some events, mainly the soccer matches, traffic was tangled, especially after the games, as tens of thousands of cars all attempted to leave at once, flooding the streets around the stadium leading to the freeways and causing delays of up to two hours. Some fans also complained about long waits to board light-rail trains after the games, though those lines seem to have diminished after the initial event, a San Jose Earthquakes soccer match, in August.
Officials for the 49ers, who control traffic around the stadium, have made minor adjustments, changing lane and street closures and adding signs, including more electronic boards that can be regularly updated to redirect traffic. And the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Agency — known in the South Bay as VTA — has added trains and buses. The basic transportation strategy, however, remains the same.
When a handful of Chronicle reporters raced to Levi’s Stadium for the first preseason football game in August, driving proved to be the most efficient way to get to the stadium. But people’s experiences may vary.
Sunday’s game will be different from the warm-up
events. Transit agencies are anticipating that more fans will take public transportation from San Francisco and the Peninsula, riding Caltrain to Mountain View and transferring to VTA light-rail trains or buses. More fans also are expected to stay until the end of the game, unlike the preseason contests, creating a bigger postgame crush, as was the case after the soccer matches.
On the other hand, the Great America theme park will be closed, which it wasn’t for the soccer matches, and its main parking lot will be used. More fans are likely to have prepurchased parking passes, speeding the time it takes for people to get into the collection of lots scattered around the stadium.
The late 5:30 p.m. start — and much later finish — of Sunday’s game also means drivers will face different traffic patterns.
“This is another first. On a Sunday night, we don’t know what will happen,” said Jim Mercurio, the 49ers’ vice president of stadium operations. “We’re asking people to get here early and be in their seats by 5.”
The 49ers will open the stadium at 2:30 p.m., an hour earlier than usual, and the team plans special pregame festivities that will begin at 5:01 p.m., a tribute to Levi’s most popular style of jeans.
Parking passes
The 49ers advise fans driving to the game to buy parking passes in advance and follow the directions on them instead of listening to Siri and their GPS voices or adhering to the instructions on online maps. But they should also pay attention to electronic message signs on freeways and city streets, Mercurio said.
Before the MexicoChile soccer game, stadium officials displayed messages to redirect fans toward emptier parking
“On a Sunday night, we don’t know what will happen. We’re asking people to get here early.” Jim Mercurio, vice president of stadium operations
lots. Mercurio said the team has a command center on the stadium’s eighth floor that includes city and Caltrans traffic cameras and the ability to control a network of electronic signs.
After the game, fans should be prepared to wait. But how long they’ll have to sit in their cars is unclear.
Transit riders have a variety of options for getting to Levi’s Stadium. The biggest player is VTA, whose light-rail system stops in front of the stadium. Those trains carried 8,000 to 11,000 fans to each of the four earlier events, and numbers could be higher Sunday. The South Bay transit system also will run six express bus lines.
“We’re going to employ the same service plan we used for the Mexico-Chile soccer game and the first two preseason games, but it will be a little beefed up,” said Colleen Valles, a VTA spokeswoman.
The agency plans to add light-rail trains and buses, particularly to and from downtown San Jose, she said.
Added buses, trains
After the game, VTA will run both buses and light-rail trains from the Great America Station to Mountain View, reducing the wait for fans making the connection to Caltrain and shrinking the crowd surrounding the station.
“We are expecting it to be particularly heavy, and we are expecting everybody to leave at the same time,” Valles said. “People should expect to wait, but we’re trying to keep the wait down.”
Caltrain, which has carried relatively light crowds of 1,500 to 1,700 for the four earlier events, plans to run two pregame trains. They’ll depart San Francisco at 2:35 p.m. and 2:55 p.m. and make all stops en route to Mountain View. Trains will depart 45 minutes and an hour after the game.
“We anticipate larger crowds for the regular season, but we are prepared for it,” said Christine Dunn, a Caltrain spokeswoman, noting that the agency is used to running special service to and from Giants and San Jose Sharks games.
Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor and the Altamont Corridor Express also will run trains. The Capitol Corridor warns passengers to expect heavy loads and to buy tickets in advance, since both the Raiders and 49ers are playing at home and the trains stop outside both stadiums.
“There are a lot of different ways to get to this stadium,” Dunn said.
As for gridlock inside the stadium, Mercurio said 49ers officials are making some changes to make the concourses less congested. Perhaps most importantly, they hope to eliminate the backup at the soft-serve ice cream stands. A second softserve machine has been installed at the northside stand, he said, and nine other locations will serve ice cream.
“We’re trying to make the stadium experience as great as it can be,” he said. “We’re going to always want to get better — every week.”