NFL Venue Preview: Are You Ready For Some Renovations?!

Ahead of the NFL season and just days before hosting its first preseason game of 2025, the San Francisco 49ers debuted the completion of a two-year, $200-million renovation of its home-field Levi’s Stadium, which includes two new 4K videoboards, the largest such outdoor screens among NFL stadiums.

Upgrades along with the two new boards, produced in partnership with ANC, include a whole new gameday production control room, 55,00 square feet of new LED across the stadium, new LED field lights, improved Wi-Fi network with Comcast and Cisco, DAS cellular network, 120 renovated suites and a remodeled 49ers Team Store.

“The new screens are the largest outdoor glass-to-glass 4K in the NFL,” says Stephanie Rogers, executive vice president of marketing for the San Francisco 49ers. She clarifies that some screens may be larger, or interior, but not producing in full 4K resolution. “It means all of the cameras are capturing 4K, all of the systems that integrate it are processing in 4K, and then the boards are displaying in 4K. The boards themselves are each 70% larger than the previous iteration, so we have over 16,000 square feet of video board, and that doesn’t even account for the LED panels and some of the other board components that we’ve implemented.”

The team gave a sneak peek to media and season ticketholders, with an “Under The Lights” presentation including a fireworks show and demonstration of the new videoboards, ribbon boards and upgraded spaces throughout the stadium, located in the Silicon Valley city of Santa Clara about an hour drive from San Francisco itself. The work is the result of two off-seasons’ worth of renovations designed to improve the experience at the stadium, which opened in 2014.

“It’s driven by the team ownership and the mentality here is we pride ourselves on having a history of innovation and being a very innovative brand,” Rogers says. “We want to continue to be a world-class facility for not only our fans here in market but to be a premier destination for all sports and entertainment.”

The renovations refresh what was already a modern and impressive venue, demonstrating the evolution of the live sports and entertainment landscape by replacing its former stadium home, the dual-purpose Candlestick Park, common of the era as functional yet bare-bones facility for both of the city’s major league teams.

“For the Super Bowl in February, the NFL and all the different production groups are going to come in and push the limits of what we can accomplish with these boards, which is going to be incredible and we will learn from it,” Rogers says, noting technology partners Comcast, Cisco, Verizon and DTP being instrumental in getting the tech to work together. For the World Cup, she says the stadium’s experience hosting the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Copa America matches meant it was mostly at FIFA’s standards already.

“There were a couple small modifications that we had to make just in terms of making sure we had enough space for corner kicks, that we completed as part of stadium renovations this year as well,” Rogers says. “Other than that, we’re in a really good spot and this was just kind of a cherry on top from a programming standpoint.”

Also refreshing the stadium are suite upgrades, which debuted for the first time with the “Under The Lights” demonstration.
“People are definitely liking the new suite upgrades. They’re very clean, very classy; you can add in your own touches as a suite owner and things like that, so the response has been very good,” Rogers says. “We have a new product that’s come online this year called the Elevate Club, it’s an exclusive space that is sort of our take on a speakeasy within the football stadium, with a field level interior club and a really high-end experience. We’re excited to launch that this season and get some fans in there to experience that.”

Another NFL stadium gearing up for the World Cup, including the final match, is MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, home to both the New York Giants and New York Jets. At 82,500 and the largest seated capacity in the NFL, the stadium is celebrating a record number of events this summer, with 40 events and more than 1.9 million fans in attendance, according to stadium execs. Of those, 23 were concerts, including three nights with Zach Bryan, two Oasis comeback shows and many others.
Upgrades and enhancements in place for the team’s home opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 7 include four new cornerstone video boards, a new audio system, an updated distributed antenna system that will increase 5G cellular capacity and coverage, and the installation of two sensory pods.

“MetLife Stadium continually searches for new ways to improve our guest experience,” said MetLife Stadium President and CEO Ron VanDeVeen. “We believe these enhancements will provide an engaging event-day atmosphere for our guests.”

The new video boards are the first step toward replacing all LED video and digital signage throughout the stadium, with an improved 8MM high-resolution LED for higher-contrast, crisp on-screen content and better viewing angles. Work to replace tunnel entrance boards, the sideline-facing game-in-progress screens and other video elements are to be completed by early 2026. The new audio system includes more than 1,000 new loudspeakers in the main seating bowl, with new subwoofers and amplification.

Set to host eight World Cup matches including the final on July 19, the festivities will also include a concert series produced by Live Nation and DPS at nearby Liberty State Park, as announced by the local FIFA World Cup host committee. No lineups have been announced yet but 30 days of programming are promised. The stadium has been eager to host multiple artists and events in a short time frame, sharing stages at times but with the particular tour’s production otherwise requiring its own load-in and floor seating setup. Examples include back-to-back shows with My Chemical Romance and the Jonas Brothers, followed by Chris Brown’s “Breezy Bowl.”

The Seattle Seahawks have undergone a renovation campaign titled “Fannovation” leading to upgrades in audio and video as well as new premium seating and hospitality spaces, including new checkout-free, grab -and-go markets.

“We chose MyVenue because they are driving POS innovation,” says Zach Hensley, VP of operations and general manager at Seattle’s Lumen Field. “Their venue-wide solution, two-way integration with Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and a single-source-of-truth back office gives us a level of control and efficiency that’s unmatched in the market. It’s helped simplify operations while elevating the fan experience, and that’s exactly what we look for in a technology partner.”

NFL stadiums continue to invest in technology and infrastructure to keep their venues current and top of the line, while complete new stadiums are in the works for the Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans and, further down the road a bit, the Washington Commanders. The Jacksonville Jaguars are putting more than $1 billion into reinventing Everbank Stadium as “The Stadium of the Future,” to feature a protective canopy roof, wider concourses, new seating types and communal spaces, and a whole new outdoor nature park outside the stadium operating year-round. Eye-popping dollar figures and public-facing upgrades in audio and video enhance the sensory experience at games and concerts, but just as important is fan convenience, speed of service and value for money.