Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara is now San Francisco Bay Area Stadium for the FIFA World Cup.
Jun 11, 2026
Updated 5:06 pm PT
The San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, temporarily renamed from Levi’s Stadium for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, in Santa Clara on June 10, 2026, where six tournament matches will be played. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
It’s one of many changes that have been in the works in the months and weeks leading up to the World Cup, some visible to the public and some out of sight.
Read on to learn more about how things look and feel different at the Santa Clara stadium.
Branding
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, widely known as FIFA, requires all of the World Cup venues — a total of 16 this year across the U.S., Mexico and Canada — to strip corporate branding from the exterior and interiors as much as possible.
That means Levi’s Stadium is now officially known as San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, and anyone in or near the venue can see that the recognizable red batwing-style Levi’s logos have been covered tightly in white tarps.
Jeroen van den Berk, part of FIFA’s communications team, said the organization needs a “clean stadium” to protect the commercial rights of FIFA sponsors and partners.
Matt Greiner chalks the field at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium in Santa Clara on June 10, 2026, ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where six tournament matches will be played. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
“So we have basically taken over the stadium,” van den Berk said in an interview there this week. “It’s very common in European soccer and in soccer all over the world.”
Other corporate signage must also be removed or covered, so a giant Bud Light sign that normally shines brightly next to one of the big screens is also obscured by shrink wrap.
All over the stadium, and even in its underbelly of tunnels, lounges and rooms, much of the San Francisco 49ers and Levi’s signage has been obscured or removed.
In its place are banners, wallpaper, photos and new signs all from FIFA’s design book, helping fans, players and staff remember where they are.
Not everything can be removed, however. Some reminders remain, such as the embossed 49ers logos on the red padded high-end seats near what would be the 50-yard line.
The playing field
The field at Levi’s is normally a completely natural Bermuda grass, set up primarily for American NFL football, with dimensions of about 120 yards in length and about 53 yards across.
The entire playing surface was swapped out in March, FIFA officials said, so the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium could meet the tournament specifications.
The San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, temporarily renamed from Levi’s Stadium for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, in Santa Clara on June 10, 2026, where six tournament matches will be played. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
FIFA requires its World Cup pitches to be 105 meters long by 68 meters wide, which converts roughly to nearly 115 yards in length and a bit more than 74 yards across.
Officials said portions of the stadium’s fixtures near the playing surface had to be removed or changed to accommodate the extra width of the pitch.
It’s not the first time Levi’s has hosted soccer, as the San Jose Earthquakes played a match against the Seattle Sounders FC in 2014, serving as the stadium’s inaugural event. The stadium has also hosted the CONCACAF Gold Cup final in 2017.
As for the surface, it looked pristine during a media tour of the stadium this week, like a closely cropped green at a golf course, with FIFA grounds officials working in conjunction with the Levi’s home field crew to make all the needed changes.
Matt Greiner, the 49ers’ head of groundskeeping, was carefully using a wheel-to-wheel line painter to lay down a touchline along the edge of the pitch on Wednesday. The surface, according to van den Berk, is “stitched.”
It is largely natural grass, but it includes synthetic fibers stitched beneath the surface to “enhance consistency and durability,” according to FIFA.
“It’s the top standard FIFA pitch. It’s a fantastic pitch,” van den Berk said.
Dressing rooms
While Levi’s Stadium has two large locker rooms for the 49ers and their opponents during the NFL season, players from around the world will use a different space.
An auxiliary locker room in the belly of the stadium that had yet to be used was split in two, with crews installing a wall, to create two dressing rooms for soccer teams competing during the World Cup.
Van den Berk said he and his colleagues have verified the wall is “soundproof” so teams are not listening in on their opponents’ schemes.
A team locker room at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, temporarily renamed from Levi’s Stadium for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, in Santa Clara on June 10, 2026, where six tournament matches will be played. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
The visiting NFL locker room has been taken over by FIFA as well, as an area where 12 mini studios are set up with lighting and backdrops, where broadcasters who bought the rights to carry FIFA matches on the airwaves will get to do interviews with players and coaches.
The food
Some of the concessions at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium will be slightly different than what attendees of 49ers games typically see, and themed to honor soccer and the international and Bay Area food scene — or at the very least to play up the approved corporate food sponsors of the tournament.
Chef Jon Severson, of Levy Restaurants, which runs the food and beverage programs at the stadium, said his team is offering a taquito topped with Lay’s Limon chips, jerk chicken nachos and peri peri chicken nachos.
His team came up with the “Bay-rito,” essentially a footlong hot dog wrapped in a tortilla with standard burrito accouterments like rice, beans, cheese and avocado crema.
Chef Jon Severson shows off a display of concession offerings created for the World Cup matches at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium on June 10, 2026. (Joseph Geha/KQED)
For fans in premium seats, Severson said there is a cheeseburger with a latticed “soccer ball pretzel bun,” complete with soccer ball-adorned sandwich pick.
For dessert, fans can try a Cherry Coca-Cola float with fortune cookie crumbles, linked to the legacy of Chinatown fortune cookie production in the Bay Area.
Wondering what these delicacies will cost you? Prices remained conspicuously absent from the updated concessions offerings, and FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other changes for FIFA
The stadium’s security gates apparently weren’t good enough, as high, metal fencing has been installed around the edges of the stadium.
While standard European league soccer games are typically broadcast with about 15 to 20 cameras, each FIFA match will have 45 cameras trained on the action, officials said, and elimination matches will have 50 cameras.
A platform for various artists and in-stadium entertainment during matches and pregame celebrations was being completed this week along the concourse.
