Levi’s Stadium: Santa Clara may let concerts blow past 10 p.m. curfew

In a victory for concert lovers, hot musical acts such as Coldplay and U2 will get to blow past Levi’s Stadium’s 10 p.m. curfew on certain occasions.

After years of denying curfew extensions, the Santa Clara City Council relented Tuesday night in a split vote. The curfew — 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays — has been a sticking point between the city and the San Francisco 49ers, who oversee the stadium, for years.

The 49ers have contended the 10 p.m. stop time has cost the stadium millions in revenue and that acts such as Ed Sheeran have pulled out. City Manager Deanna Santana has countered that there’s no evidence the curfew has led to money losses.

While the city manager has the power to extend the curfew under the original stadium agreement, the City Council in 2017 asked the former acting city manager to not grant any extensions — a policy that has remained in place until now.

Late Tuesday evening, the council voted 4-3 to allow Santana to approve weeknight curfew extensions until 11 p.m. for five non-NFL events a year — pyrotechnics included. Any extensions after that will be considered by the council.

Mayor Lisa Gillmor and council members Kathy Watanabe and Kevin Park cast the dissenting votes.

The curfew has largely been maintained to lessen the noise in surrounding neighborhoods. But several council members stated that the same neighborhoods have to endure the constant roar of airplanes taking off and landing at the Mineta San Jose International Airport.

Councilmember Anthony Becker said that when he spoke with residents on the campaign trail, they rarely complained of stadium-related noise. Instead, he said, they were concerned about traffic and the potential for loitering, trash or other criminal activity that could occur after concerts.

“It’s a concern to have noise, but at the same time when you have nonstop noise of airports basically drowning out the sound of a concert, it makes no sense,” he said.

But Watanabe, whose district includes the stadium, said she gets complaints from residents after every NFL game. And when Beyoncé blew past the curfew, she said residents were upset for days because people returning from the Warriors game couldn’t get home.

“There are a lot of reasons why the decisions were made that were made and it wasn’t because people wanted a music ban or anything like that,” she said. “It’s because promises were made to the residents, to the constituents of my neighborhood, my district.”

Gillmor wanted to make it a condition of the new curfew rule that the 49ers couldn’t book acts that would lose money or be a financial burden on the city or taxpayers.

“They’re not good managers,” Gillmor said of the 49ers. “They’re not capable of booking money-making events at the stadium, as is evidenced by the fact that the events that they’re booking, especially the non-NFL sports events, are losing money dramatically.”

In 2018-19, non-NFL events lost $2.6 million, according to city documents.

In a statement, 49ers spokesperson Rahul Chandhok applauded the council’s vote to allow curfew extensions.