49ers' new Levi's Stadium making progress

SANTA CLARA -- At 80 percent complete, Levi's Stadium is approaching the cosmetic-touches stage, some seven months until the 49ers' official home opener in what's expected to be a Week 2 matchup on "Sunday Night Football."

"We're right about where we expected to be," project executive Jack Hill said Wednesday as he ushered select media on a stadium tour.

Most of the heavy lifting appears done, and now it's as if they're putting lipstick on, well, a newly discovered supermodel.

Six months remain before the stadium hosts its first event: an Aug. 2 soccer game between the San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders FC.

The 49ers will play two exhibition games there in August before a probable two-week break ahead of its regular-season unveiling. (The NFL schedule typically is released in April.)

Two years after the stadium's groundbreaking, sod will be placed down in April, a strand of Bermuda called "Bandera" that's supposedly "shade tolerant" and able to "rebound quickly." The grass is being grown two hours east in Livingston, which is some 10 miles away from quarterback Colin Kaepernick's childhood home of Turlock.

Also in April, the final seats are expected to be installed, and team and stadium staff will begin moving into offices inside the stadium, which is a mere 13 feet from the 49ers' long-time training facility.

Here are other notes gleaned from the two-hour tour:

That behind-enemy-lines entrance conceivably could happen just for pregame warmups when the teams follow hallways adjacent to elite clubs so fans can see them. Both teams likely will come out through tunnels at opposing corners of the stadium, however, in pregame introductions, team president Paraag Marathe added.

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49ers' new Levi's Stadium making progress