ByHarrison Rich,Staff WriterJune 22, 2026
Levi’s Stadium, one of the host sites for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Santa Clara, Calif., on June 7. The venue’s name has temporarily changed to the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium.
Levi’s Stadium, one of the host sites for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Santa Clara, Calif., on June 7. The venue’s name has temporarily changed to the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium.Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
FIFA has taken extreme measures to de-brand its host stadiums for the World Cup, renaming all 15 venues across North America that have a sponsor.
At Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara — temporarily called the “San Francisco Bay Area Stadium” — massive white tarps cover the Levi’s logo both outside and inside the stadium. Levi’s, which reached a 10-year, $170 million naming rights extension with the San Francisco 49ers in 2024, used the moment to create a viral marketing campaign.
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The company recently changed its Instagram profile picture to the covered up Levi’s logo. They’ve even extended the bit to Levi’s locations around the world, putting the white sheet on storefronts in Paris, London, Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong and more.
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Levi’s isn’t the only victim of FIFA’s wrath. In the Bay Area stadium’s press box, logos of condiment bottles were covered with black tape to prevent free advertising. At Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., FIFA slapped blue tape on the sides of all 64,146 seats to block out the brand’s logo.
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Why is FIFA covering up all these logos? Well, it wants to protect its exclusive advertising partners, which in some cases pay up to $200 million for a four-year deal, according to Sports Business Journal. Some advertisers paid as much as $100 million to be a tournament-specific sponsor.
Safe to say, FIFA wasn’t willing to risk ticking off any of its sponsors. But Levi’s has certainly taken advantage of an odd situation.