Work on the 49ers' new Levi's Stadium "is a bit ahead of schedule" and officially 94% complete, so the city of Santa Clara by the end of the month "hopes to issue a permit to transition the stadium from a construction site to an events venue, well ahead of a July 17 ribbon cutting and the first event on Aug. 2," according to Mike Rosenberg of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. Rails to hold drinks within the stadium "are installed, but they don't yet have charging stations for your cellphone." Security canopies "are up outside the entrance but don't have the metal detectors." The "shiny new beer taps await their Bud Light and 30 craft brews labels." The 2,250 flat-screen TVs that "line the stadium and the two crystal-clear megaboards behind the end zones still go haywire sometimes and need to be calibrated." From the "expansive open deck that greets fans atop the outside staircase to the VIP rooftop lounge that features a bar made from reclaimed wood from Moffett Field, crews are leaving hundreds of little blue sticky notes everywhere." Levi's Stadium Project Exec Jack Hill said that each sticky note will "denote a problem, as minor as a scratch on a table, and must all be fixed 'to make sure everything is just perfect.'" Hill: "To the average person walking through here, it's going to look like there is a lot of work to do. It's the details. You can do 90 percent of the job, and what people are going to see is the 10 percent." One of the "biggest tests will come June 29, when authorities will set up a stadium 'dry run.'" The inaugural event on Aug. 2 is a Sounders-Earthquakes game (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 6/20).
