The San Francisco 49ers moved into Levi’s Stadium in 2014, and now they’re considering another move. This time, though, it’s only their training facility that could be relocated.
The Athletic’s Vic Tafur reported that the team is looking at a possible relocation of their facility near Levi’s Stadium, partly because they’re simply running out of space. That part is straightforward. What’s less straightforward is the other conversation swirling around that same piece of Santa Clara real estate.
The 49ers’ Relocation Plan Has Nothing to Do With the Viral Theory
In his latest article, Tafur wrote, “They [49ers] just put a lot of money into the weight room and hydrotherapy, as well as the locker room and cafe. Additionally, they are exploring a possible nearby relocation as they are running out of space at and next to Levi’s Stadium”
For the past couple of years, a theory has been quietly gaining traction online. The idea, originally laid out in a Substack post by Peter Cowan, goes like this: an electrical substation sitting right next to Levi’s Stadium emits low-frequency electromagnetic fields that weaken players’ tendons and ligaments, causing the wave of non-contact injuries the 49ers have suffered.
The 49ers’ injury list has been genuinely brutal. George Kittle, who, according to PFSN’s Tight End Impact Metric, ranked fifth in the league with an impact score of 86.9, tore his Achilles. Nick Bosa and Fred Warner both also had season-ending injuries, while Brandon Aiyuk’s ACL and MCL tear came in 2024.
Moreover, Brock Purdy missed significant time, and Ricky Pearsall also dealt with a lingering PCL issue. As the injuries piled up, so did the speculation, eventually leading some fans to focus on the substation next door.
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General manager John Lynch took the theory seriously enough to actually investigate it. “Because it deals with, allegedly, the health and safety of our players, I think you have to look into everything,” he said.Â
The team hired an independent scientist to study the situation, and it turned out to be, as Lynch called it, “a big nothing burger.” He added that electromagnetic levels at the facility are “400 times less than an unsafe zone.”
The NFL’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, backed that up. He pushed back on the claim that San Francisco leads the league in non-contact and lower-extremity injuries.
There’s also no established sports medicine research linking this type of nonionizing radiation to tendon or ligament damage. The same category of radiation, by the way, comes from your phone, your Wi-Fi router, and basically every device you use daily.
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Christian McCaffrey, who is famously obsessive about his body and recovery, addressed the theory directly. The 49ers RB didn’t dismiss the broader conversation about electromagnetic exposure, but he rejected the idea that one external factor could explain an entire season of injuries.
“There’s too many variables,” he said. McCaffrey also mentioned that sleep, hydration, compensation patterns, and the physical toll of collisions all add up in complicated ways.
“We had a (expletive) year when it comes to injuries,” he said. “Some years are like that for a lot of teams and to say it comes from one thing is too broad of a statement.”
With the substation theory firmly ruled out by both team officials and medical experts, the 49ers have shifted their attention back to internal solutions.
As Tafur wrote, money is pouring in for upgrades to the weight room, hydrotherapy areas, locker room, and team cafe. But those improvements are also exposing a practical problem: there simply isn’t enough room left at and around Levi’s Stadium to keep expanding.
That’s why the team is now exploring relocating to a nearby training facility to support its expanding infrastructure.
