Inside the 49ers' stadium tech stack: cybersecurity, WiFi at scale, and the Super Bowl challenge
Feb 3, 2026 with Costa Kladianos
Key Points
- The 49ers treat network infrastructure as existential: without reliable WiFi and connectivity, the entire stadium tech stack fails, making Cisco partnership foundational to operations.
- Cybersecurity threats are treated as inevitable rather than preventable, with the 49ers maintaining an in-house team and sharing threat intelligence across NFL competitors to defend against DDoS attacks and jumbotron hijacking.
- The Super Bowl will stress-test bandwidth records previously set during a Taylor Swift concert, with data consumption expected to keep climbing as AI and social sharing drive real-time fan engagement.
Summary
Costa Kladianos, EVP of technology for the San Francisco 49ers and Levi's Stadium, oversees ticketing, point-of-sale systems, WiFi, network infrastructure, and cybersecurity. His goal is invisibility on game day. Fans should notice only the experience, not the technology enabling it.
Twenty-five years ago, a game meant watching and eating. Now attending is optional—fans can stay home with a large TV, food, and comfort. To drive stadium attendance, the 49ers must make the in-stadium experience social and data-rich. Fans want real-time stats, player information, and the ability to share their presence on social media. Game tickets represent significant entertainment spend, so the experience has to justify that cost.
Network infrastructure
Kladianos ranks network infrastructure as foundational. He calls it "the plumbing of our organization." Without solid WiFi and network connectivity, everything fails. Cisco is the primary partner. The 49ers sit in Silicon Valley, where attendees expect best-in-class technology and notice immediately when it falls short.
Bandwidth demand is accelerating. AI and LLM adoption mean fans are pulling more data to their phones in real time. Advanced stats, player information, and social sharing all compete for the same connection. The network must handle fan devices, field-side infrastructure, scoreboards, coach communications, and NFL-wide systems.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity runs hand-in-hand with infrastructure. The stadium is a visible target. DDoS attacks, credential theft, and attempts to hijack the jumbotron for scams or propaganda are real threats. Kladianos treats attack as inevitable: "It's not if we are attacked, it's when you're attacked." The 49ers maintain an in-house cybersecurity team and share threat intelligence with other NFL teams. Off the field, competitors become colleagues.
Reactive defense means the battle is already lost. Proactivity is non-negotiable.
Standards and overperformance
The NFL sets minimum standards for WiFi, connectivity, and broadcast expectations across all stadiums. The 49ers explicitly aim to exceed them. The team's culture is to win championships. The technology function mirrors that ambition. Kladianos wants visitors to leave saying the experience was exceptional, something Disney or Starbucks might copy.
The 49ers operate the largest outdoor 4K video screens in the NFL. The team attends NAB and other conferences to track broadcast technology and learn from outside the sports industry.
Super Bowl demand
The Super Bowl is among the world's largest sporting events. Demand spikes across capacity, WiFi, and bandwidth. The previous record at Levi's Stadium was set during a Taylor Swift concert. Her demographically tech-savvy audience pulled record bandwidth the moment she took the stage. Kladianos expects the Super Bowl to exceed that record, driven by continued increases in data consumption. Bandwidth records are made to be broken because data usage only grows.