San Francisco 49ers broke ground on the Santa Clara Stadium on April 19, 2012, marking a significant milestone in its move from San Francisco to its new home. It took years to finalize plans for moving San Francisco’s beloved football team to the South Bay, but when it was done all parties involved were satisfied with the outcome.

Now the serious work begins. The new Santa Clara Stadium is scheduled to open August 2014 and there’s a lot of ground to cover and work to be done. The Stadium will be an open stadium with a natural grass field. The design of the stadium will seat approximately two‐thirds of the fans in the lower bowl, making it one of the largest lower bowls in the entire National Football League.

The Santa Clara Stadium site is located in Great America’s overflow parking lot, across from the team’s current Santa Clara headquarters. At first glance, the specifications are staggering: 1.85-million square feet with seating for 68,500 people. If necessary, seating capacity can expand to up to 75,000 people.

Getting to a game easily is one of the most important aspects of a fan’s experience. There are several ways to get to Santa Clara Stadium. It is located near Highways 101, 237, 880, Lawrence Expressway, and San Tomas Expressway. There are as many as 11 different highway interchange options to get to the new stadium parking lots to avoid gridlock. Officials say 40,000 parking spaces have been planned to allow for plentiful parking.

Like the San Francisco Giants Stadium, Santa Clara Stadium has even more public transit options for fans, including buses, VTA light rail, ACE trains, and Amtrak. All public transportation is within a short walking distance to the stadium.

The design and construction of Santa Clara Stadium falls to HNTB, an international architecture firm and Turner Construction. The new stadium’s design is described as light and airy with uncovered pedestrian plazas, commercial community space, a 49ers team store, and a 49ers Hall of Fame. The clean white, painted steel structure will offer unique views to the field in addition to spectacular and unobstructed views of the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains around the Stadium.

For the city of Santa Clara, bringing the 49ers to its neighborhood begins with building the stadium which will become yet another achievement for the Silicon Valley community. The Stadium has partnerships with technology providers who will showcase the innovation of its community. Environmentally-friendly and sustainable design features such as photovoltaic panels, a green roof, excellent public transit access, convenient bicycle parking, walking path access from the San Tomas Creek Trail, water-conserving plumbing fixtures, sophisticated building control systems, and recycled materials are built into the stadium plans. There is Wi-Fi capability throughout the stadium, mobile connectivity, IPTV, and HD video boards towering over 13,000 square feet for easy viewing.

For more information visit the website covering the construction of the Stadium. You can even follow the progress of the site through a live webcast.