Photos: Fans turn out for an energetic 49ers sendoff

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San Francisco 49ers fan Manuel Lopez, from San Jose, cheers as buses, probably containing players and employees, leave Levi’s practice facility along Stars and Stripes Drive on the way to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. Nine buses left the facility, seven at this time. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

Hundreds of people waited for hours for a glimpse of buses leaving the San Francisco 49ers practice facility at Levi’s Stadium along Stars and Stripes Drive in Santa Clara.

Fans traveled from near and far, including Modesto, to be in the presence of the buses as they ferried the players, employees and family and friends to the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport on their way to Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII.

Nine buses would leave the facility with police escorts; two buses left around 2:45 p.m. and seven buses about an hour later. With the tinted windows it was difficult to tell who was in which bus, but that didn’t deter the 49ers fans from screaming for their team and chanting “Super Bowl, Super Bowl” and “Beat KC” — as in the Kansas City Chiefs, of course, the 49ers opponent in the Super Bowl.

At times high winds battered flags with 49ers logos on them and heavy rain drove many under the Tasman Drive overpass for cover.

But the clouds parted, the rain stopped, and the wind died down to a mere breeze when the remaining seven buses drove slowly through the cheering crowd on their way to the airport.

See photographs of their arrival in Las Vegas here.