The Santa Clara Stadium Authority, the San Francisco 49ers and their partners built Levi’s® Stadium with three major tenets in mind.

Technology, sustainability and fan experience.

It makes sense then that all three are accomplished in three aspects of the building’s Silicon Valley feel.

The WiFi, the mobile app, and its Ninerds program.

“We can no longer tell the fan, ‘Come to the game and be unplugged for six hours,'” 49ers chief operating officer Al Guido told a group of Comcast-hosted tech-oriented media at the team’s home this week.

But, Guido, added, the team’s high-tech fan experience must be “ancillary” to what the 49ers call the “hero feature” — the game itself.

WiFi

Speaking of the on-field action, 49ers vice president of technology Dan Williams said he and his crew noticed a dip in engagement during the team’s preseason game against the Chargers. As the product on the field gets better, he said, fans will naturally be more inclined to stow their smart phones.

But the devices themselves and speedy rate at which users can consume data inside of the stadium is meant to enhance the in-venue experience.

And many are already taking advantage.

Here are some figures and facts:

• 400 miles of cabling, 70 of which are for WiFI
• 1,200 access points, 600 of which support the 45,000-seat lower bowl
• 1 access point to every 100 seats within the bowl
• Levi’s® Stadium became the first stadium to carry 40 Gb/s of Internet capacity
• At peak during the 49ers-Broncos preseason game, there 20,000 concurrent users, or an average of 15,000 for the afternoon

Mobile App

Levi’s® Stadium business operations director Chris Giles explained that he and his team sought to create three types of core features within the application: ticketing and parking, food and beverage service and high-quality video replays in addition to a tie-in with the 49ers fan loyalty program, Faithful 49.

Some interesting notes from Giles:

• 80,000 app downloads thus far
• Half of all season-ticket holders have linked their ticket account within the app
• During the 49ers-Chargers game, 1,000-plus food-and-drink deliveries were made in a 10-to-12 minute range after a given order was placed (the goal is to be under 20 minutes)
• Many fans are taking use of express pick-up lines at concession stands

Ninerds

There are more than nine of them, for one. There will be 60-plus local tech professionals roaming the stadium on gamedays to answer fans questions about logging onto the WiFi and using the mobile app.

As 49ers business operations analyst Martin Manville explained, these Ninerds help with proactive education and reactive troubleshooting.

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