The schedule is set for the Friday Night Lights football triple-header on Sept. 18 at Levi’s Stadium, according to Ticketmaster.
The ticket agency lists the games for the event as Wilcox vs. Pioneer at 4 p.m., Watsonville vs. Scotts Valley at 6 p.m. and Milpitas vs. Valley Christian-San Jose at 8 p.m.
It was a mystery about which teams would play in this event for weeks, since Watsonville High prematurely announced it would play Scotts Valley in the event and numerous media outlets reported the news, including Prep2Prep.
There is always a chance the troublesome natural turf at Levi’s could postpone the event or force these games to move to high school sites. Tweets and stories emanating from the 49ers’ practice at Levi’s after Saturday’s all-star game at the $1 billion stadium spoke of loose turf at Levi’s. This is the problem that upset plans last season for an August Friday Night Lights event at Levi’s, delaying the event until October and altering the teams involved.
The original slate of games for the FNL event last season set for Aug. 29 at Levi's had Manteca meeting Wilcox and Jesuit-Carmichael taking on De La Salle. However, after turf problems at Levi's forced postponement, the event was moved to Oct. 10-11 at Levi's and made into double-headers on consecutive days.
The two-day event featured Santa Clara vs. Wilcox and Elk Grove vs. Jesuit on Friday night and Oakdale vs. Manteca and Logan vs. De La Salle the following day. The event was deemed a success by most involved.
Watsonville football coach Ron Myers at first commented in mid-June on the apparent happy news of his Wildcatz meeting Scotts Valley at the new home of the San Francisco 49ers and then weeks later backed off on further commentary.
Tweeted @CatzAthletics in mid-June: "It's official: Catz football will be hosting our week 3 game vs. Scotts Valley at the site of Super Bowl 50, Levi's Stadium!"
Said Myers when first asked on June 16 about a date with Scotts Valley at Levi's: "There's no contract yet, but it looks like it will happen. It's our home game but Louie (Scotts Valley coach and athletic director Walters) called and asked if I wanted him to apply to play at Levi's and I said 'sure.' I was thinking to myself 'We're really going to be there.' It's exciting. It's unbelievable."
Several athletic directors whose schools seemed like possible candidates for the event said weeks ago they did not know who would be participating.
However by very early Sunday morning – too early for anyone to comment – the match-ups were listed on Ticketmaster. Pioneer was originally scheduled to play at Wilcox and Valley Christian was slated to play at Milpitas in listings on MaxPreps. Watsonville and Scotts Valley have had their game listed as being at Levi’s for weeks and never changed the listing. The game was originally scheduled for Watsonville's Geiser Field.
Prep2Prep asked a 49ers' official on Saturday by email what the match-ups would be. Said Roger Hacker, the Niners' senior manager of corporate communications: "We'll be announcing them on Monday."
It was also announced over the public address system at Saturday's Charlie Wedemeyer all-star game that tickets for the Friday Night Lights event would go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday, though no mention of the teams involved was made.
Levi's is scheduled as a hub of activity in future weeks.
The Niners' first eight practices are scheduled for Levi's, though that could be changed. There is a Taylor Swift concert Aug. 14-15, a Niners' exhibition game against the Cowboys on Aug. 23, a Luke Bryan concert on Aug. 29, a Niners' exhibition game against the Charegers on Sept. 3 and San Francisco's regular-season opener against the Vikings set for Sept. 14. Following the game against the Vikings, the Niners are not scheduled to play at home until the Oct. 4 contest against the Packers.
Said new Niners' coach Jim Tomsula to the San Jose Mercury-News regarding the sod: "We reserve the right to review (the field and practice schedule) They’ll roll it and work on it all night. We won’t come out here if it isn’t safe.”
Added Tomsula: “We’re not going to put (the players) at risk. We probably need to rethink how we do individual drills because it got chewed up here (on the sideline) with the wide receivers and defensive backs. The middle of the field is good.”
It remains to be seen whether the turf issues will for the second consecutive year will alter a Friday Night Light prep event at Levi's, but more on this later.
