SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (publ. 2/10/2016, pg. A13)



A story about the local impact of Sunday’s Super Bowl incorrectly stated the number of Caltrain riders who connected with VTA in Mountain View on the way to Levi’s Stadium before the game. The number was 4,393, less than half what was reported in a Caltrain news release, which had combined the ridership both pregame and postgame.



SANTA CLARA — As the golden confetti from Super Bowl 50 was being scooped up, the Monday morning quarterbacking from the Bay Area’s Super Bowl host committee was decidedly clear: What could have gone better?

Not much.

“It was our finest hour,” Keith Bruce, president of the Bay Area host committee, said during a news conference Monday at the Santa Clara Police Department. “Two years of hard work paid off beautifully for our guests, our visitors. Maybe it was our finest six hours.”

Any fears of terrorism or intractable traffic came and went by Sunday evening at Levi’s Stadium, as an estimated 83,700 people, including international media and staff, enjoyed a safe, sunny California day for the country’s largest sporting event.

“This is a big event, much bigger than our city of 120,000,” said Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews. “The reality is in February in Santa Clara, we don’t have a lot going on, but we sure had a lot going on this time.”

In a surprise announcement, Matthews told reporters that he would leave the City Council effective Tuesday, 2½ years before his term expires, to spend more time with his wife and four children.

“I haven’t stopped working since I was 15,” said Matthews, 53, a former code enforcement officer with the city of San Jose who attended the Super Bowl briefly to check on operations before returning home to watch the game on TV. “I have a full life outside of what I do in front of the camera.”

Most TV cameras were gone Sunday night by the time what may have been the biggest problem surfaced with the event: Levi’s Stadium had chartered shuttle buses for 1,000 stadium workers to get back to their vehicles parked at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, but by 11 p.m., about 300 were still waiting.

“It’s horrible,” one worker tweeted just before 10 p.m. “Treated like cattle after working so hard.”

At 11 p.m., Santa Clara police called the Valley Transportation Authority, which sent four buses to help, according to Inez Evans, VTA chief operating officer.

The light rail served more than 10,000 passengers both coming and going from Levi’s Stadium, she said. Caltrain brought 9,262 passengers from San Francisco to Mountain View to catch light rail to the game.

Traffic around the stadium was congested shortly before and after the game, but aside from some complaints from nearby neighborhoods about charter buses or limousines blocking their streets, most reports showed smooth passage.

About 20 people were arrested during the game for a score of relatively minor offenses that covered public drunkenness and assorted swindling, said Santa Clara police Chief Michael Sellers. There was also a bit of turbulence in the skies, as four small airplanes breached the restricted airspace around the Super Bowl and were diverted by Air Force jets to other airports outside the vicinity of Levi’s Stadium, including one sent as far as San Luis Obispo County, federal authorities said.

No credible threats surfaced, but members of the Super Bowl Joint Operations Center in the Mountain View area tracked informal threats on social media, said John Lightfoot, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco division.

One person bragged about having a bomb in the stadium, but the post was determined to have come from Europe.

“They were completely noncredible,” Lightfoot said. “None were located in California or the region … they were stupid, inane and very vague.”

The host committee expects to complete a full economic impact study this spring. It’s already clear, however, that many businesses around the Bay Area profited handsomely from the influx of Super Bowl fans, especially hotels, restaurants and charter buses. Some restaurants complained, however, that traffic blockades in key areas hurt business. And many homeowners expecting a windfall for renting their suburban ranch houses went begging.

But for the first time in Super Bowl history, more than $13 million was raised for local charities, including $1 million generated from the Atherton party and auction co-hosted by homeowner Jillian Manus and football legend Joe Montana and emceed by comedian Jay Leno.

“Our charge was to redefine the Super Bowl and send it into a new era,” Bruce from the host committee said. “The Bay Area hadn’t hosted one in over 30 years, but we showed the NFL that this is a region that can host a world-class event — and do it again.”

Which one? Well, Super Bowl 56 looks good, he said, but by then the name will return to its traditional Roman numerals.

Levi’s Stadium, he said, likes the look of Super Bowl LVI.

Staff writer Matthias Gafni contributed to this report. Contact Julia Prodis Sulek at 408-278-3409. Follow her at twitter.com/juliasulek