Congratulations, Santa Clara, you have made it past Feb. 8, 2026, aka Super Bowl Sunday, and that means that you can have nice things again.
Case in point, that fabulous event at Levi’s Stadium on Feb. 28. For the first time ever, the city opened up the stadium and welcomed the community inside to enjoy the spoils of their tax dollars. Community members got to see an iconic piece of Santa Clara firsthand.
Thank you to the city staff for their hard work in making that happen and thank you to the 49ers for being such gracious hosts.
We know our mayor won’t send any gratitude your way.
But folks, don’t kid yourselves. The timing of this event is no coincidence. It’s no coincidence that Santa Clara’s economic development and marketing committee, the one headed by Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Council Members Kelly Cox and Albert Gonzalez, has suddenly filled Santa Clara’s calendar with events like these just weeks after the Super Bowl.
They’ve been hard at work for months and, suddenly, things are coming together.
There’s a STEM event at the Convention Center in April. Night markets at Commerce Plaza in May, June and July. All events that bring people to Santa Clara just in time to make the FIFA World Cup a success, bring revenue into our city and put Santa Clara on the map. Everything Santa Clarans have hoped for with Levi’s Stadium.
Why? Because it’s finally a big event that has nothing to do with the 49ers. There is finally a major event at Levi’s Stadium separate from the York family. One that Mayor Gillmor has no problem making a success.
That’s right. Her hatred of the red and gold runs so deep that she will take away anything good from the residents just to score a win against the 49ers.
So, cherish this win, folks. Enjoy these next few months. The FIFA World Cup is a once in a lifetime event. Which means, we won’t have nice things for long.
Previous Milestones:
Milestones – What Are We Thinking? – Opinion
Milestones – What Super Bowl? – Opinion
Milestones – Go Up Not Out – Opinion
I am glad Mayor Gillmore is doing something good for the community.
I am not sure why her desire and efforts to help the community and protect Santa Clara’s interests are viewed as “hate.”
We know that the 49ers have bought most of the SC City Council and I am sure that somehow the Silicon Valley Voice is being bought also.
I think we are missing an important point. We only found out a couple weeks before. The committee had meetings starting in June 2025 and nothing to show for Superbowl?
This seems to be to show they did something and that’s it. Over $1.25 million was spent on a one day event. How many of us went? How many of us got to be excited and know about this to plan for it?
Couldn’t we have done so much more for our community with that kind of money? We could have had multiple fan celebrations, festivals, bands, etc.
This was just wasted money for show vs. really planning ahead to make something special for superbowl.