City of Santa Clara fining 49ers $1,000 after U2 concert breaks curfew

U2 perform during the band's 'Joshua Tree Tour 2017' at Levi's Stadium on May 17, 2017 in Santa Clara, California. U2 perform during the band's 'Joshua Tree Tour 2017' at Levi's Stadium on May 17, 2017 in Santa Clara, California. Photo: (Photo By Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images), Getty Images Photo: (Photo By Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images), Getty Images Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close City of Santa Clara fining 49ers $1,000 after U2 concert breaks curfew 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

Santa Clara officials say they will take legal action and fine the 49ers venue management for allowing U2 to play an hour after curfew at Wednesday night's sold-out show at Levi's Stadium.

The iconic 1980s Irish band performed for a nostalgic crowd of some 50,000 people, playing until 11 p.m. and breaking the city's 10 p.m. curfew as they ran through the entire "Joshua Tree" album.

Now, Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor says the city plans to fine the 49ers $1,000, the standard amount for a noise violation.

"They deliberately and willfully violated the law," Mayor Lisa Gillmor told KPIX 5. "We made a promise to our community. So we cannot affect their quality of life. It's already affected in terms of traffic, litter garbage, noise, those types of things."

What's more, the city issued a statement Friday morning stating they would take legal action against the 49ers: "We will pursue all appropriate legal action and take steps to ensure this doesn't happen again."

The 49ers manage the stadium for the city, and tensions between Santa Clara and the NFL franchise have been growing for months, with each side pointing fingers in an ongoing rent dispute. In early May, team executives filed for arbitration, claiming that they owe the city $4 million less this year than the franchise had paid in the first two years at Levi's Stadium.

Curfew has been another hot-button issue and the 49ers say they asked the city for permission to extend the play time for the U2 concert by an hour at a city meeting in January, but their request was denied. 49ers officials claim that Great America asked for 30 nights of curfew extension to 1 a.m. at a meeting later that month, and received approval.

Bob Lange, vice president of communications for the 49ers, says they're addressing the matter of the U2 concert with the city.

"In regards to the curfew, we're not going to engage in a back and forth," Lange said. "We're going to work with our partners behind closed doors and address this topic. We're going to be good partners here. We're going to work with the city and the stadium authority that addresses the matter."

Lange added: "It's disappointing that the focus of the concert has moved from hosting the biggest and most philanthropic rock band to the issue of the curfew."

Some media reports noted that the show ran late because the opening act Mumford and Sons started late, but Lange says they were scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. and were on stage by 6:40 p.m.

Those in attendance saw that U2 got rolling, the fans went wild and Bono continued to lead his band in killer rock ballads without any evidence that he was watching the clock.

While the nostalgia-inducing performance itself earned several positive reviews, fans on social media voiced frustrations over traffic, concessions and entry lines.