When the 49ers opened Levi's Stadium before the 2014 NFL season, the building was hailed as an architectural wonder.
The NFL's greenest stadium, which was designed by HNTB, includes 68,500 seats, with roughly 45,000 of those seats located in the lower bowl. As HNTB explains, the extensive seating in the lower-bowl allows Levi's Stadium "to offer more close-in seating than any other professional sports venue."
The stadium also includes 9,000 club seats, 174 luxury suites and two main entrances, which total roughly 18,000-square-feet in space so that fans arren't walking all over each other when they enter the stadium.
The stadium was also lauded for its views of the "surrounding Silicon Valley" area and its ability to keep fans connected online while they're at the game.
Although that stuff is nice, it seems that 49ers fans would gladly trade it all it in for one thing: shade.
Levi's Stadium is too sunny.
The Dolphins have the same problem in Miami; however, they're fixing it by adding a canopy as part of a $400 million renovation at Dolphins' Stadium.
Shade being added to an NFL stadium in Miami: pic.twitter.com/QEMxvBYBzj
— Chris Biderman (@ChrisBiderman) July 20, 2016
Here's what the Dolphins canopy will look like when it's completed.
After a 49ers writer tweeted out a picture of the new Dolphins canopy, 49ers fans immediately started tweeting to owner Jed York.
Apparently, 49ers fans would really, really, really like a canopy installed at Levi's Stadium.
@ChrisBiderman Paging Jed York...
— D.A. (@DAdeshiyan) July 20, 2016
@ChrisBiderman please forward this to Jed.
— Tim G (@Reambler) July 20, 2016
How have the @49ers still not done this? Even the Romans figured this out 2,000 years with the Coliseum. https://t.co/ZCUxwpfDnb
— 49ers Dynasty 4 Life (@TheFranchize55) July 20, 2016
49ers, take notes. https://t.co/1U85dFLmjZ
— Damon Bruce (@DamonBruce) July 20, 2016
It might seem like a weird thing to complain about, but it's really not.
For one, it's way hotter in Santa Clara than it is in San Francisco, which the 49ers apparently forgot. For example, if the 49ers played a game this Sunday (July 24), here's what the weather difference would be between the two cities.
Not only is Santa Clara considerably hotter, but it usually feels even hotter than it actually is, because the sun is literally blazing on you the entire game. On the other hand, San Francisco is generally cooler than the actual temperature because there's almost always a wild breeze.
The other bad part for the fans is that there's literally no shade at the stadium. Every seat is pretty much out in the blazing hot sun.
After the first game at Levi's in August 2014, there were 60 emergency calls and one death at the stadium, and even a death that may have been caused by heat-related issues (a man had a heart attack and authorities weren't sure how much the heat played a factor).
Later that year, there were even more complaints.
"The heat is ferocious," a 49ers fan told the San Jose Mercury News in October 2014. "It was bad. The heat was just penetrating. Oh, my, god. It's bad. They need to do something."
If the 49ers want to stay on good terms with their fans, they might want to think about doing something. Things have gotten progressively worse between the team and its fans over the past two years.
Due to the 49ers' struggles on the field, fans have been looking to unload their personal seat licenses. If you combine the weather and the team's struggles, there's a good chance the 49ers won't be playing in front of sold-out crowds in 2016 unless something changes.
(Wink of the CBS Eye to Ninerswire.com)
