The 49ers this year at Levi's Stadium added 100 "portraits and banners, installed a ring of honor atop their suite tower and added splashes" of gold in response to critiques that the 4-year-old venue was "too bland and didn’t have enough of a home-stadium feel," according to Matt Barrows of the SACRAMENTO BEE. 49ers President Al Guido said, "A lot of people kept saying, ‘You know, we need to add some gold into the building. It feels like it was red and white. And we’re not the Arizona Cardinals. We’re the San Francisco 49ers -- so where’s all the gold?’" Barrows notes the ring of honor "features the jersey numbers," from Steve Young's No. 8 to Charles Haley's No. 94, of the 20 former 49ers who are in the Pro Football HOF. The stadium enhancements "coincide with an effort to embrace past greats more so than in recent years." Both Young and Pro Football HOFer Jerry Rice "spoke to players before a recent practice." Guido said that the stadium "initially was light on nostalgia because the team thought its museum would be the best way to honor the past." But fan surveys -- about 150,000 of them over the last three years -- "revealed a call for more history and color." Perhaps the "most striking additions are the large banners in the main concourse that depict great moments in the team’s history" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 8/22).
