Open Letter to the 49ers re: new stadium acoustics

Congratulations on Measure J!  I for one am excited about the new stadium, and hope that the process of securing the rest of the financing can go through and that the process of getting the stadium built can go as quickly and as responsibly as possible.

I'm writing to ask about whether you have consulted acoustical engineers in the stadium design process.  It's no secret that the acoustical design of Seattle's Qwest Field has helped to provide the Seahawks with a significant home field advantage.  There is a demonstrable correlation between crowd noise and false-start penalties, and it has also been demonstrated that run-heavy offenses can struggle in noisy environments due to the fact that not all the offensive linemen will operate in sync due to the difficulty in hearing the snap.  Moreover, as wide receivers are typically furthest from the quarterback at the snap, crowd noise can make it difficult for them to explode off the line and be into their breaks at the right moment.  And this is all aside from the psychological effect of playing in a hostile environment.

In general, I like the design of the stadium as it has been mocked up.  In particular, I like the fact that the open air (non-suite) fans are as close to the field as possible, and that they are clustered around the field on three sides.  I am not an acoustical engineer, but I believe consulting a firm to see how the current design could be tweaked to maximize the benefit would be worthwhile as it would contribute to the ongoing success of the 49ers.