It’s no surprise that drones are banned from the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium, but that ban has also been curiously extended to SF venues like the Ferry Building, the Moscone Center, and even Grace Cathedral.
If you have nothing but contempt for drones and the people who fly them over public spaces, next week will be one of your most wonderful weeks of the year. In a very commonsense move, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Friday morning that drones are banned from the skies above the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium, a highly predictable move, given the security implications, terrorism precautions, and the NFL and NBC’s hypervigilant stances toward protecting their copyrights of the February 8 game broadcast.
But it is quite unexpected, as KRON4 reports, that the Super Bowl drone ban also extends to several San Francisco venues from Tuesday through Saturday of next week. This despite the fact San Francisco is about 45 miles away from where the game is being played at Levi’s Stadium.
The Super Bowl drone ban, billed as multiple “No Drone Zones,” does not apply to the entire city of San Francisco. As KTVU explains “‘No Drone Zones’ will be enforced at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, The Pearl, The Ferry Building, and Grace Cathedral between February 3 – 7.”
The dates, times and locations of these drone bans can be seen above, it’s basically Thursday at the Palace of Fine Arts, and Tuesday through Saturday at the combined venues of the Moscone Center, the Ferry Building, The Pearl, and Grace Cathedral.
Wait, Grace Cathedral?
Yes, because Grace Cathedral is hosting some sort of Super Bowl-related "private event” (which is not being publicly named) next Friday night. For whatever reason, the drone ban applies at Grace Cathedral from 2 pm Tuesday afternoon through 1 am Sunday morning.
The rest of the SF drone bans are very consistent with the SF Super Bowl street closures that we described this morning.
The Ferry Building will be hosting nightly Super Bowl projection shows next Thursday through Saturday nights, so obviously a lot of tourists (and locals!) will be gathering there. There is some nebulous Super Bowl fashion collection display thingy at event space The Pearl, hence the drone ban there on the same days. Moscone Center will be hosting an “immersive football festival” called Super Bowl Experience Presented by Jersey Mike’s, so the drone ban applies to that event too.
Also, Tuesday night’s Pro Bowl at the Moscone Center has the drone ban in effect. The fact that they’re playing Pro Bowl on a Tuesday night, indoors, at a corporate conference center guarantees the shittiest goddamned Pro Bowl ever played, but that’s a topic for another day.
The drone ban also applies to the Palace of Fine Arts for Thursday night's NFL Honors (basically an awards show for NFL players, where they hand out MVP and such). The ban does not apply for the Palace of Fine Arts' Friday night's Sting concert and Saturday night performance by The Killers.
Anyone caught flying a drone at these restricted times or places is subject to a fine of up to $75,000, and you will definitely have your drone confiscated, but the federal criminal charges will certainly be the worst of your problems.
Related: ACLU Sues Sonoma County Over Drone Use, Could SF Be Next? [SFist]\
Image: NEW BRIGHTON, UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 12: A DJI Mavic Pro 3 camera drone flies above the ground on January 12, 2026 in New Brighton, United Kingdom. Chinese drone manufacturer DJI has become one of the world's foremost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufacturers. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
