Harbaugh gives Levi's crowd lukewarm review

[Popeyejones]

What did the 49'ers think was going to happen building a stadium where it takes your season ticket holders that were used to taking a cab downtown in 20 minutes to now driving two hours?

LOLWHUT?!?!?!

(I think you're confusing Candlestick with AT&T Park, where the Giants play, and where the 9ers have never played).

I guarantee you what's going to happen is 50% of their season ticket holders are going to pick 3-4 games to go to, and broker the rest

Very unlikely. The new stadium and move to SC means that the season ticket base is much more driven by corporate accounts than it was at the Stick (or, it will be over time as natural attrition in carry over happens).

The upside for fans of having an end-user season ticket base is that sections of the stadium become communities; you're seeing the same people every game over the course of years. The downside is that a lot of these tickets end up on Stubhub and the like, as some end-user holders sell half their tickets to fund going to the other half the games, and others sell them off when the team is playing poorly, or when they can't go. That's how you end up with fans of other teams throughout the crowd.

The downside for fans of leaning more heavily to corporate account holders is you don't get as much of a sense of community in sections, as it can be different employees and their friends winning the raffles or signing out the tickets on any given week. The upside is that these tickets don't end up on Stubhub and the like, as at most places you'd get fired for signing out the tickets and then selling them, and the couple hundred bucks isn't worth anyone's job if their elligible to sign out corporate tickets to begin with. As a result you have less of a sense of community, but also less tickets available to traveling fans of other teams.

I think one other thing that a lot of Hawks fans don't realize is how Bay Area geography and fandom works. As shorthand for 9ers fandom you have the South Bay (where most 9ers fan reside), north of that is San Francisco (where the second most number of fans reside), and north of that you have Marin (9ers fans, but not very populated) and a generation of fans from the East Bay who became fans as kids when the Raiders were in L.A. (I'm in this group). What has changed with the move to the stadium is that rather than some fans traveling up from the South Bay to the games you now have some fans traveling down from San Francisco to the game. You can call it whatever you want, but the 9ers are actually closer to the majority of their fanbase than they were at Candlestick.

I suspect that because San Francisco is a globally recognized city many Hawks fans don't realize it's pretty small: the population is about 800K, compared to the 2 million people who live in the South Bay who are also all 9ers fans.

In any case, long story short, the 9ers stadium is oddly enough geographically closer to the majority of their fanbase, and the likely shift to more corporate season ticket accounts means it's going to be much harder for traveling fans for other teams (and people like myself who aren't season ticket holders) to get into games.

.........which will result in what you saw opening night, a lame crowd full of the other team's fans.

The fans were definitely a non-factor through the second half (probably a combo of a painfully slow game due to penalties and the 9ers imploding), but you're the only person who has ever claimed that the stadium was full of Bears fans. That's just silly.

 

[Marvin49]

Kinda the same article reposted, but still funny.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... -improved/

What did the 49'ers think was going to happen building a stadium where it takes your season ticket holders that were used to taking a cab downtown in 20 minutes to now driving two hours?

I guarantee you what's going to happen is 50% of their season ticket holders are going to pick 3-4 games to go to, and broker the rest.........which will result in what you saw opening night, a lame crowd full of the other team's fans.

Faulty thinking on the bolded.

You are making the assumption that most 49er fans are from SF. They aren't.

More than 50% of the Season Ticket Holders at Candlestick were from the South Bay compared to somewhere in the teens in SF. While moving AWAY from the city, the team actually moved CLOSER to its season ticket base. People get this sense for some reason that the 49ers moved out of SF and into the boonies or something. They didn't. They moved into an area with a BIGGER population, a BETTER infrastructure, and most importantly MORE MONEY. The stadium is less than 5 miles from HQs for Google, Yahoo, Apple, Cisco, and many others. BTW...Candlestick and Levis are 45 min apart...not 2 hours. While peeps make jokes about the size of Santa Clara, what they miss is that the cities immediate neighbor is San Jose...the Largest City in the Bay Area by population, the 3rd largest city in California, and the 10th largest city in the entire nation.

The average disposable income per household in the Bay Area is some of the highest in the country. Now...will there be a lot less belligerent drunks, stabbings, and shootings? Yes...that crown may have been priced out of the building...and to be honest with 2 small boys I was much more concerned with the safety of my kids at a game than a potential homefield noise advantage.

It will get better though. Just takes time to become the new Season tix crowd.

You just spent two paragraphs telling me I'm wrong and it's the same ticket base, and that the team's actually playing closer to those people...............then you ended with "takes time to become the NEW season tix crowd."

Well which is it, the same crowd who's supposedly closer now, or new ticket holders? I do think it's the same people, because that's how season tickets work, hard for new people to get tickets, especially with popular teams like the Niners.

So if it's the same people who are now supposedly closer and happier, why does the atmosphere suck?

Different people within the same area genius. A lot of Season tix holders did not renew because of the price...but the largest BLOCK of season tix holders at Candlestick were from the South Bay. If only half of them renewed that's still over 25% of the fans in the building now...and that doesn't count others (like myself) who are from here and purchased tix for the first time because the stadium is so close.

I sit here writing this from my desk which is in a building for a company that is a stadium partner and is 1.3 miles from the front gate.

 

[Marvin49]

What did the 49'ers think was going to happen building a stadium where it takes your season ticket holders that were used to taking a cab downtown in 20 minutes to now driving two hours?

LOLWHUT?!?!?!

(I think you're confusing Candlestick with AT&T Park, where the Giants play, and where the 9ers have never played).

I guarantee you what's going to happen is 50% of their season ticket holders are going to pick 3-4 games to go to, and broker the rest

Very unlikely. The new stadium and move to SC means that the season ticket base is much more driven by corporate accounts than it was at the Stick (or, it will be over time as natural attrition in carry over happens).

The upside for fans of having an end-user season ticket base is that sections of the stadium become communities; you're seeing the same people every game over the course of years. The downside is that a lot of these tickets end up on Stubhub and the like, as some end-user holders sell half their tickets to fund going to the other half the games, and others sell them off when the team is playing poorly, or when they can't go. That's how you end up with fans of other teams throughout the crowd.

The downside for fans of leaning more heavily to corporate account holders is you don't get as much of a sense of community in sections, as it can be different employees and their friends winning the raffles or signing out the tickets on any given week. The upside is that these tickets don't end up on Stubhub and the like, as at most places you'd get fired for signing out the tickets and then selling them, and the couple hundred bucks isn't worth anyone's job if their elligible to sign out corporate tickets to begin with. As a result you have less of a sense of community, but also less tickets available to traveling fans of other teams.

I think one other thing that a lot of Hawks fans don't realize is how Bay Area geography and fandom works. As shorthand for 9ers fandom you have the South Bay (where most 9ers fan reside), north of that is San Francisco (where the second most number of fans reside), and north of that you have Marin (9ers fans, but not very populated) and a generation of fans from the East Bay who became fans as kids when the Raiders were in L.A. (I'm in this group). What has changed with the move to the stadium is that rather than some fans traveling up from the South Bay to the games you now have some fans traveling down from San Francisco to the game. You can call it whatever you want, but the 9ers are actually closer to the majority of their fanbase than they were at Candlestick.

I suspect that because San Francisco is a globally recognized city many Hawks fans don't realize it's pretty small: the population is about 800K, compared to the 2 million people who live in the South Bay who are also all 9ers fans.

In any case, long story short, the 9ers stadium is oddly enough geographically closer to the majority of their fanbase, and the likely shift to more corporate season ticket accounts means it's going to be much harder for traveling fans for other teams (and people like myself who aren't season ticket holders) to get into games.

.........which will result in what you saw opening night, a lame crowd full of the other team's fans.

The fans were definitely a non-factor through the second half (probably a combo of a painfully slow game due to penalties and the 9ers imploding), but you're the only person who has ever claimed that the stadium was full of Bears fans. That's just silly.

Agreed on all fronts.

I was there. There were SOME Bears fans, but certainly not a lot.

The only issue I really see is the raucous nature of some of the fans (or lack thereof) and the fact that some of the really high end seats also have Club access...so the seats might be empty, but the fans are there...just in the club, not the seat.

That's particularly true of the visiting sideline you see on TV because that's where the sun hits (IE Its really hot in August and Sept). On the home sideline (in the shade of the suite tower) it was much less so.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Different people within the same area genius. A lot of Season tix holders did not renew because of the price...but the largest BLOCK of season tix holders at Candlestick were from the South Bay. If only half of them renewed that's still over 25% of the fans in the building now...and that doesn't count others (like myself) who are from here and purchased tix for the first time because the stadium is so close..

I still don't buy that it's that many new season ticket holders. That's a HUGE turnover for any NFL team, especially one as popular as the Niners.

My guess is a lot of the regular season holders saw Sunday as a way to make some big bucks selling their seats for the home opener of a new stadium. But either way, no excuses........that crowd should have been off the hook crazy and excited.

You say it'll get better, but I'm sticking with it's going to be a revolving door style crowd with many different faces each game, which is going to hurt for consistently getting a hyped up crowd.

 

[Marvin49]

Different people within the same area genius. A lot of Season tix holders did not renew because of the price...but the largest BLOCK of season tix holders at Candlestick were from the South Bay. If only half of them renewed that's still over 25% of the fans in the building now...and that doesn't count others (like myself) who are from here and purchased tix for the first time because the stadium is so close..

I still don't buy that it's that many new season ticket holders. That's a HUGE turnover for any NFL team, especially one as popular as the Niners.

My guess is a lot of the regular season holders saw Sunday as a way to make some big bucks selling their seats for the home opener of a new stadium. But either way, no excuses........that crowd should have been off the hook crazy and excited.

You say it'll get better, but I'm sticking with it's going to be a revolving door style crowd with many different faces each game, which is going to hurt for consistently getting a hyped up crowd.

Well if That's your point than it's possible you are correct.

There was a big turnover though.

A lot of the fans that had seats between the 10's (yard lines) found that their seats were now 20k, 30k, or even 100k per license because those sections were now club seats. They were given options to move to another location, but many refused.

I think you are missing my point tho on the Season Tix Holders tho.

I'm not saying that its the exact same tix holders or not....

...just saying that your assumption that a ton of peeps were just taking a cab to Candlestick is WAY off because most of the teams FANBASE is in the south bay. Quoting the Season Ticket base was just a way to illustrate that point.

SF itself is much more of a Giants/Baseball town than anything else.

 

[Popeyejones]

But either way, no excuses........that crowd should have been off the hook crazy and excited.

If you can, or care enough*, watch the first half again and listen to the crowd. Who knows where it ranked across the NFL, but on the broadcast it was MUCH louder than I ever heard at Candlestick.

The second half wasn't loud at all, which I suspect had to do with the team playing like hot crap (a la the 12th man booing the Hawks toward the end of the 2nd quarter against the Bucs last year) and the penalties dragging the game to a snail's pace.

TBF over time I think we can expect the crowd there to not be as loud as it was during the first half, and not as quiet as it was during the second half.


* "care enough" not meant as a dig. Just saying "care enough" b/c I assume you don't actually really care and that we're all just killing time BSing.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

...just saying that your assumption that a ton of peeps were just taking a cab to Candlestick is WAY off because most of the teams FANBASE is in the south bay. Quoting the Season Ticket base was just a way to illustrate that point..

Fair enough, you live there so you know more than me.

I have two college buddies that work for Accenture that live in the city, and are season ticket holders......and that's what they told me, just a quick cab ride downtown. Now they gotta spend all morning trying to get out to Santa Clara on public transportation (Caltrain? idk)...........and are NOT happy about it. One went to the game Sunday, the other sold his tickets.

 

[Popeyejones]

...just saying that your assumption that a ton of peeps were just taking a cab to Candlestick

Were there ever people taking cabs to Candlestick?I never saw that. Kind of lost in the shuffle of all of this is that the public infrastructure (and infrastructure in general) to get to Levi's is much better than the infrastructure to get to Candlestick (which isn't saying much, because unlike AT&T the public infrastructure to get to Candlestick always sucked). It was either people taking the bus and walking through Hunter's Point, driving down side streets to the Hunter's Point side of the stadium, or taking that goofball one lane road to Candlestick off the highway through South San Francisco (for Hawks fans: South San Francisco is it's own city in San Mateo county, it's not part of San Francisco).

Edit: Marvin, it has been a long time since I went that way. Was it one lane or two lanes? Whatever it was unless you were on foot I remember it being a nightmare for at least a mile around the stadium.

(The exact opposite of Raiders, A's, and Warriors games, as that complex is 20 yards off the highway at most)

 

[Marvin49]

...just saying that your assumption that a ton of peeps were just taking a cab to Candlestick is WAY off because most of the teams FANBASE is in the south bay. Quoting the Season Ticket base was just a way to illustrate that point..

Fair enough, you live there so you know more than me.

I have two college buddies that work for Accenture that live in the city, and are season ticket holders......and that's what they told me, just a quick cab ride downtown. Now they gotta spend all morning trying to get out to Santa Clara on public transportation (Caltrain? idk)...........and are NOT happy about it. One went to the game Sunday, the other sold his tickets.

It will be a longer ride for some fans, but shorter for the majority of them.

 

[Popeyejones]

I have two college buddies that work for Accenture that live in the city, and are season ticket holders......and that's what they told me, just a quick cab ride downtown.

They've gotta be talking about AT&T Park (where the Giants play). Candlestick isn't anywhere near downtown.

 

[Marvin49]

...just saying that your assumption that a ton of peeps were just taking a cab to Candlestick

Were there ever people taking cabs to Candlestick?I never saw that. Kind of lost in the shuffle of all of this is that the public infrastructure (and infrastructure in general) to get to Levi's is much better than the infrastructure to get to Candlestick (which isn't saying much, because unlike AT&T the public infrastructure to get to Candlestick always sucked). It was either people taking the bus and walking through Hunter's Point, driving down side streets to the Hunter's Point side of the stadium, or taking that goofball one lane road to Candlestick off the highway through South San Francisco (for Hawks fans: South San Francisco is it's own city in San Mateo county, it's not part of San Francisco).

Dunno...I never did, but then again I live in SJ.

 

[Popeyejones]

Dunno...I never did, but then again I live in SJ.

Ah, okay. Unrelated question: Are people down there pissed about the Giants' shenanigans around not letting the A's move there, or do they not much care?

(Back story for Hawks fans: It was shared territory and the A's gifted it to the Giants when the Giants were planning on moving there. Then the Giants got ATT&T in S.F. and now won't gift the territory back now that the A's are wanting to move there).

 

[Marvin49]

Dunno...I never did, but then again I live in SJ.

Ah, okay. Unrelated question: Are people down there pissed about the Giants' shenanigans around not letting the A's move there, or do they not much care?

(Back story for Hawks fans: It was shared territory and the A's gifted it to the Giants when the Giants were planning on moving there. Then the Giants got ATT&T in S.F. and now won't gift the territory back now that the A's are wanting to move there).

I think it largely depends on what team you are a fan of.

I'm a Giants fan so I think its kinda funny. I do think they should let the A's move tho...I'm just not adamant about it.

I think A's fans are torn too....some think they owned the territory to begin with so the A's should be able to move there while other really don't care because they don't want them to leave Oakland.


The only thing I think everyone agrees on is that they need to get the hell out of the Coliseum.

 

[Largent80]

SF itself is much more of a Giants/Baseball town than anything else.

Smart move by them........ :lol:

 

[Popeyejones]

The only thing I think everyone agrees on is that they need to get the hell out of the Coliseum.

:lol:

Yeah, among A's fans in the East Bay the sense I get is most people are silently happy that the Giants are doing what they're doing, as it allows them to hold out hope for a new stadium in Jack London Square (which really should have been part of the plan when JLQ was built up 20 years ago, although TBF when JLQ was in the planning and building stages nobody knew that the Raiders were a couple years away from coming back and really ruining the Coliseum as a baseball venue).