The newest addition to the NFL is a  $5 billion dollar stadium that holds a 1000 ton video board, a whole theater, and a lake? The concrete giant resides in the heart of Inglewood, California, on the former site of the Hollywood Park Racetrack, southeast of The Forum. 

Now why does SoFi Stadium cost more than Wembley Arena ($1.8 Billion), Yankee Stadium ($1.5 Billion), and Allegiant Stadium ($1.9 Billion) combined? SoFi Stadium is the first phase of Hollywood Park Entertainment Center, an area which will house 8.5 million square feet of offices, condos, movie theaters, malls, luxury hotels, and a man made lake with a fountain in it. It could remind one of the infamous Disneyland theme park, but instead caters to exciting sports and entertainment.

Design

The Stadium itself consists of a pedestrian plaza, the entertainment venue, and the stadium itself. The attached entertainment venue is called The YouTube Theater. With a capacity of just about 6,000, it is smaller than Fresno’s own SaveMart Center, which has a capacity of 16,000. Covering the stadium and the theater, is a translucent canopy, which is supported above the stands by pillars laid across the pedestrian plazas. The canopy produces messages and videos that can be seen by planes going in and out of the LAX.

All over the US, most college and NFL stadiums are shaped upward and out. Fresno State’s “Bulldog Stadium” is a great example. With a capacity of 40,000, Bulldog Stadium is built to where fans up in the nosebleeds are farther away from the action. SoFi Stadium was implanted into the ground, and is in the shape of a stemless wine glass, making the stands go up and in, so fans in the top seats don’t feel far away from the action. With a max capacity of 70,240 seats,  the stadium can expand to fit up to 100,240 seats for big events. Such events include the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2028 Olympics, and Super Bowl 56, which will be held February 13 2022.

What takes the cake as the biggest, and most fanciest component of SoFi Stadium is the 70,000 square foot Samsung Infinity Screen, formally known as “The Oculus”. The structure is absolutely massive. With a length of 120 yards, it’s about one-and-one-tenth the size of Big Ben (100 yards), and one-and-one-fifth this size of The Statue of Liberty (101.70 yards). The 2.2 million pound doubled sided video board, reaches from end zone to end zone, and holds the stadium’s 260 audio speakers. The Infinity Screen displays 80 million pixels, the most of any video board in the United States. 

Experience

When one first walks through the entrance glass doors, the first thing that’ll stand out to is the sheer size of The Infinity Screen, and just the stadium bowl itself. One thing they’ll see is the many wires that fly around that stadium roof and the ones that are holding up the Infinity Screen, and one will just stand there and wonder “How are those tiny things holding up that humongous thing?!”

Being down in the stands, surrounded by different fans of both teams, the craziness and sound of the environment releases a sensation of absolute joy and excitement within a person, giving off the feeling of being at a family barbecue, only with 100,000 more people there.

Three year Varsity football player, Joshua Chinn, 23’, describes his first time being at the stadium.

“I thought it was insane, because it’s super new. The first thing that I noticed was the Infinity Screen. That was sick, absolute fire!” 

Chinn was also able to stand mid-field at a tour of the stadium he visited, May 29th, 2021. 

“It was a crazy cool experience,” Chinn said, “Since it had just opened, I just took the opportunity to soak in the moment and lay in the grass.”

Los Ángeles Rams Safety, Terrel Burgess, (drafted in the 3rd round, pick 104, in the 2020 NFL draft from Utah) talks about his experience going from a college stadium to a NFL stadium.

Walk em down pic.twitter.com/VQI9zJMYq3

— Terrell Burgess (@TiTaniumT98) May 25, 2021

 “It’s cool, you know? Going from the 45k sold out every week, every home game stadium. And then my rookie season we had no fans at all, it was just wild to not have any fans in there,” Burgess says. “I never thought that I’d play for fans, and now having all the fans in there it’s loud, it’s really enjoyable, I love being able to play in a stadium like that.”

Unlike most stadiums, Sofi Stadium has VIP booths that are directly on and surround the whole field, for people who wanna pay the extra money and wanna be REALLY close to the action. Out of the many factors of playing in the NFL, Burgess says he finds the fan interactions pretty fun to deal with.

“I’ve always done my best not to interact with the fans during games or anything like that. I feel like for the most part, the fans are close enough to interact, and also close enough for away fans to be annoying. It’s fun though. I like the interactions, they’re close enough to where we can interact with them if we need to, like talk to somebody, I like it.”

To see the magnificent new stadium for yourself, view their future events here.

Video takes an inside look at the new stadium.

For more articles, read Tri-sport athlete Brad Cheney chases his dream and What is the Momentum campaign.