For James T. Butts Jr, mayor of Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles where the stadium is located, entering SoFi Stadium “is like stepping inside a video game”.
For his Rams team, which shares the venue with LA's other team, the Chargers, owner Stan Kroenke dreamed big, with a bill of $5.5 billion, more than double the cost initially projected (2 ,2 billion).
The stadium, for which the online financial services company SoFi is expected to pay around 625 million in sponsorship fees by 2040, can accommodate around 70,000 people in normal configuration.
But the capacity can be increased to 100,000 spectators, which should be the case for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2028 Olympic Games, during which the
enclosure will be temporarily renamed Los Angeles Olympic Stadium.
Located on a site of more than 120 hectares in alignment with one of the runways of LAX airport, the stadium had to be built with a ground housed more than 30 m below ground level, so as not to obstruct traffic. air.
$4,000 instead
It is covered with a giant claw-shaped canopy, covering more than 90,000 square meters, which shelters bad weather while allowing light to pass through.
It is reminiscent of the Canopée des Halles in Paris, which gives the impression of a space that is both closed and open to the outside.
The architects used special translucent panels which, on the upper face, make it possible to transform the roof into a giant screen, with animations visible from an airplane.
Inside the complex has been installed another giant screen, circular in the form of a long strip 110 m long, which goes around the field and broadcasts images on both sides.
The NFL professional football league could not have dreamed of a better way to present itself to the tens of millions of viewers who will follow the Super Bowl on Sunday.
To attend this final between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals in the stadium, inaugurated in September 2020, it was necessary to put on the table this week at least 4,000 dollars per place on resale sites.
The new boxes built at ground level to be closer to the action, called Field Cabanas, were already sold out several days before the event.
A little further from the lawn, others were still trading at more than 1.1 million dollars per space, for around twenty people.
