Super Bowl 50—or Super Bowl L, for more orthodox fans—is less than two weeks away. The gridiron finale takes place in our beloved Bay Area this year at Levi’s Stadium, and everyone is getting pretty excited around these parts. The switch to Arabic numerals, despite security concerns, is jarring. But there is something even more disturbing about this year’s promotional materials.
Everything about the information above suggests that the event is taking place in San Francisco. Similar issues have come up with fans of the 49ers, some of whom only recently discovered where Levi’s Stadium actually is—in Santa Clara. Perhaps it’s cute that the 49ers play 49 miles away from downtown San Francisco, but visiting football fans may not have been thrilled to find out that the Super Bowl, for which they paid over $4,000 to attend, is closer to the Cisco campus than the Golden Gate Bridge.
In light of complaints, a local organization, the Santa Clara Association of Merchants, has drawn up plans to reincorporate the area within a half-mile radius of Levi’s Stadium as a new city called San Francisco. It wouldn’t be the first time a state has more than one city by the same name. As committee chair Brian Johnson explains, “We’ve always dreamed of having the Super Bowl in San Francisco, and soon that dream will be a reality.”
But what about fans who already booked hotel rooms in the original San Francisco? Johnson says they can rely on the Bay Area’s excellent public-transportation system to get to the big game in a safe and timely manner.
“Let’s say you’re in Fisherman’s Wharf in the old San Francisco. You just hop on the F streetcar, skip over to the Embarcadero Muni station, get on the N train, take that to the Caltrain station, ride Caltrain down to the Mountain View station, transfer to the VTA Light Rail and take in the scenery as the light rail whisks you to the stadium. Boom—simple. Just three and a half hours door to door, then another quick hour in the security line at the stadium, and you’re done.”
Local opponents of the plan say that having a second San Francisco will be confusing and deceptive. “Uh, yeah, that’s kind of the point,” says Johnson. But the reincorporation, which is expected to be approved by the County of Santa Clara, has been mostly met with support from local homeowners, who expect property values to skyrocket once their properties are located within San Francisco city limits.
Counties and municipalities around the nation are taking note. In Cobb County, Georgia, a new stadium is being built as the future home of the Atlanta Braves. The move so far from the team’s current home has drawn heavy criticism from locals. The Braves, with their blatantly racist “Tomahawk Chop” war chant, are no strangers to criticism. But this time they see an easy way out, taking a page from the 49ers playbook. Assuming they achieve similar success, SunTrust Park won’t be outside of Atlanta for long.