Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor and the City Council firmly decided on a 10 p.m. curfew for Levi’s Stadium, and now the ripple effects are being revealed.
Singer Ed Sheeran has decided to pass on holding his concert at Levi’s Stadium and, according to his tour list, not stop by the Bay Area at all.
“The community is paying a severe price for Mayor Gillmor’s music ban,” said 49ers President Al Guido. “We had reached an agreement to host international star and Grammy-award winning artist Ed Sheeran. His show will no longer come to Levi’s Stadium because the Mayor played politics and refused to correct, or even address, the music ban. Four-thousand hard-working individuals have lost their right to work, residents have lost out on millions of dollars in revenue, and music lovers have been denied an opportunity to view a world-class concert.”
Past weekday concerts have brought around $600,000 for each event to the City. The loss is almost equivalent to Santa Clara’s new City Manager’s annual salary and benefits package. Additionally, any hotel or retail revenue corresponding to the concert is also lost.
Ed Sheeran’s concert promoter, AEG, represents many other artists. If the promoter was not willing to compromise Ed Sheeran’s concert quality, it is foreseeable that they will not compromise for their other artists either.
The weekday curfew was put in place so Santa Clara Northside residents could sleep soundly with work and school the next day. They have not budged on the curfew when asked for an extension for May’s U2 concert and October’s Coldplay concert.
U2 blew the curfew—angering residents and Council. They were slapped on the wrist with a minimal fine. Santa Clarans only need to wait less than a month to see if Coldplay will honor or ignore the curfew.
The curfew is still a hotly debated topic. The City Council intended to hold a community outreach meeting to get community thoughts on the curfew from Northside residents, but it was cancelled. As of press time, a new date has not been set.
During Tuesday’s Stadium Authority meeting, Jim Mercurio, Vice President of Stadium Operations at Levi’s Stadium, warned that being inflexible on the weekday curfew meant the stadium could lose out on hosting many weekday events.
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This article is very biased, making it seem like Lisa Gillmor recently decided upon a 10 p.m. curfew for Levi's Stadium. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, this curfew has been in effect for decades, long before Lisa Gillmor was involved in city politics and long before the stadium was even conceived of.
Section 9.10.070(c) of the Santa Clara City Code, sets dBA limits and time frames for noise throughout the city. The Santa Clara Weekly fails to mention that most cities in California have similar noise regulations. Our neighboring cities also restrict weeknight noise in residential neighborhoods between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and also force concerts to end at 10 p.m.! For example, Napa pulls the plug on their "BottleRock" concerts when the clock strikes 10. Paul Masson in Saratoga strictly monitors the dBA level and early curfew of its concerts.
This article makes it seem like the 49ers should have a say on whether loud, late weeknight rock concerts should be held in the stadium. Only 49er opinions are championed as if they have priority in Santa Clara. This is a public stadium. It is owned by the citizens of Santa Clara. Citizens should have the ultimate say since we live here and it is our stadium. In fact, we already had a say when Measure J was voted on back in June of 2010. The supporting documents for this measure such as the Environmental Impact Report mandated that Levi's stadium follow existing noise control legislation.
Noise late on weeknights anywhere in Santa Clara should not be an issue to be "hotly" debated. It is against the law. Shame on those who back using Levi's stadium for late weeknight noisy events, especially those who would personally gain from destroying the quality of life for city residents.