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Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — At the NFL league meetings in March, the San Francisco 49ers were confident they would be bringing the Super Bowl back to Levi’s Stadium.
Barring a sudden change of direction, that confidence will be rewarded at the spring owners meetings in Minneapolis next week. There, the 49ers’ bid for Super Bowl 60 in 2026 is slated to be approved by the NFL, a league source said, confirming a report by Sports Business Journal.
“If the Bay Area has the opportunity, we would be honored to host Super Bowl LX,” 49ers president Al Guido said in a statement.
Should the Bay Area bid be accepted, it would bring the Super Bowl back to Levi’s Stadium for the first time since the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50 and the third Super Bowl played in the Bay Area. The Niners beat the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX, a game that was played at Stanford Stadium in 1985.
Niners executives have been confident about bringing the Super Bowl back to Levi’s for the past few months. At the league meetings in Phoenix in March, the Niners sought a $120 million loan from the NFL’s stadium fund to make improvements to Levi’s Stadium.
That money is slated to go toward premium seating and scoreboard upgrades at Levi’s with an eye toward the 2026 World Cup and bolstering their position for future Super Bowls.
Niners chief executive officer Jed York was enthusiastic about the chances of another successful Super Bowl bid.
“My optimism is very high,” York said on March 28. “I feel very confident that we’re gonna get a Super Bowl in the near future. And it would be great to get Super Bowl 60 after hosting Super Bowl 50… It would be fantastic to be able to bring that game, certainly after bringing the World Cup to Levi’s Stadium and having the Super Bowl to follow that. Those are two truly the largest sporting events in the world and having those back-to-back would be fantastic.”