The San Francisco 49ers have been a disaster on the football field, but they continue to earn honors and compliments for some of what they do off the field. The latest involved their technological achievements and work. Sport Techie ranked the 49ers No. 7 on their list of the top 25 tech savviest franchises around the world.
It is no surprise that the Bay Area is well represented. The Sacramento Kings are No. 1 and the Golden State Warriors are No. 2. The 49ers are No. 7, the San Francisco Giants are No. 11, the San Jose Sharks are No. 22, and the Oakland Athletics are No. 23.
Here’s what they have to say about the 49ers and their ranking:
The $1.2 billion home of the 49ers, Levi’s Stadium, was and still is one of the most cutting-edge stadiums in all of sports, with 400 miles of cable, 1,700 beacons and 1,200 distributed antenna systems. The state-of-the-art venue set the standard for what modern stadiums will look like for years to come. With an emphasis on being environmentally friendly, Levi’s Stadium also boasts the first-ever rooftop farm on a professional sports arena, which generates 150 pounds per week and features nearly 40 rotating crops for stadium and private events.
Over the past three years, the 49ers as an organization have been focused on promoting learning opportunities for students around STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) initiatives, arguably the sports organization who has done the most around education (Exhibits A, B, and C). In September, it became the first professional sports team to partner with Khan Academy, a global free online education program.
At the start of the 2016 season, the team announced a collaboration with Amazon Prime Now, so fans could receive their game day essentials delivered straight to their tailgating spot. When fans are ready to head home from Levi’s, they can now get picked up in an exclusive Uber Zone, the first-ever dedicated curbside pickup and dropoff spot at a stadium.
I think the work the 49ers have done to advance STEM education in the Bay Area is vastly under-rated. They have donated quite a bit, and partnered with various companies to further this area of education. It helped get them a finalist nod for ESPN’s Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year.
An of course, we know all about the technology at Levi’s Stadium. They pushed the technology and environmentally-friendly nature of the stadium, and it is one area that has been a pretty big success. The stadium has had its share of issues, ranging from the relationship with the city, to the clash with soccer moms, to problems with the field surface the past couple years. But this has come as they have done strong work building out the technological aspects of the stadium. Whether it be ordering food from your seat, finding out the length of bathroom lines, or checking out highlights on the 49ers team app, they have done a lot to push the envelope.
They could probably use some technology to get rid of the sun issues on the east side of the stadium, but we’ll save that for another day!