49ers Install NFL's First Collapsible Goal Posts at Levi's Stadium

The 49ers announced Friday that goal posts have gone up at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, sparking excitement from fans on Twitter.

"Are those? Why yes! Goalposts at Levi's," tweeted Twitter user Ali Hunter along with a link to Earthcam.com footage.

According to a tweet from the 49ers official Twitter account, the posts are the NFL’s first collapsible field goal posts.

A post on 49ers.com details how the flexible posts will work:

“After the final whistle of 49ers home games, it will take a single member of the Levi’s Stadium grounds crew eight seconds to lower the uprights and cross bar onto the field. All he’ll need to lay them flat on the grass is a simple drill motor. (Raising the uprights and the cross bar takes 30 seconds.)”

The 49ers website posted a video and a gallery of photos showing the installation process.

%4049ers+tweeted+out+a+picture+of+the+new+field+goal+posts+that+went+up+at+Levi%27s+Stadium+Friday+morning.

The posts were installed by a crew led by 49ers director of engineering operations Pat Rogan and First Down Football Products president George Wiley at the team’s new Santa Clara home on Friday morning.

A former employee for the City of Pasadena, Calif., Wiley was inspired to create the collapsible goal posts for NCAA football stadiums following his work overseeing public safety at the Rose Bowl, according to 49ers.com.

“It’s become popular again, mostly in the NCAA, for fans to rush into the field after a game and tear down the field goal posts like they did when they were old and made out of wood,” Wiley was quoted by 49ers.com as saying. “What happens now if you tear a structure like that down, you bonk somebody on the head with a piece of 30-foot piece of aluminum, there’s going to be injuries.”

Wiley has installed the posts at Boston College and the University of Arizona.

Besides increasing safety on the field, the posts will make it easy for the stadium to get ready for non-football events.

The first sporting event at the new stadium is a soccer match scheduled for Aug. 2, 2014, when the MLS San Jose Earthquakes will host the Seattle Sounders.

Contact Us