SoFi Stadium

• 1. Introduction

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  SoFi Stadium's roof holds 27,000 embedded LED pucks, bright enough for passengers flying into Los Angeles International Airport to see images across the canopy below. The stadium sits in Inglewood, California, on ground once occupied by the Hollywood Park Racetrack. It opened in September 2020 with room for 70,240 fans, a number that can expand past 100,000 for the biggest events. Two NFL franchises call it home at once, the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers. Getting to that opening took decades of failed plans, a price tag that kept climbing, and a construction site that nearly stalled. The route to Super Bowls, World Cup matches, and record-breaking concerts began with a stadium deal that collapsed in 1995.

• 2. Canopy And Screen

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  HKS designed SoFi Stadium's canopy from 302 individual ETFE panels, stretched across a million square feet and held up by a cable net. Forty-six of those panels can open to ventilate the open-sided bowl beneath them. Despite the covering, lightning can still stop play. It first did on the 4th of October 2021, during a game between the Chargers and the Las Vegas Raiders.

  Suspended above the field is the Infinity Screen, a double-sided oval video board built by Samsung and known before its name change as 'the Oculus.' It weighs 2.2 million pounds, displays 80 million pixels, and carries the stadium's 260-speaker sound system along with 56 5G wireless antennas. The attached performance venue, YouTube Theater, seats 6,000 people, and the NFL treats it as a separate facility sharing the same roof.

  Grass suits California's climate, but it wears out fast under more than one home team, so designers chose artificial turf instead. That choice put SoFi Stadium alongside California Memorial Stadium and Valley Children's Stadium among the state's few major venues without natural grass.

  StadiumDB named SoFi Stadium's design Stadium of the Year in its Jury Award. The American Society of Civil Engineers called it the Outstanding Architectural Engineering Project of 2021. West Basin Municipal Water District, the City of Inglewood, and their partners won an Excellence in Action award for the stadium's recycled water project. Tekla's North America BIM Awards named the stadium a Steel Winner. Hollywood Park Casino reopened in a new building on the property in October 2016. It was the first business to open under the redevelopment plan that would later include this stadium.

• 3. A Racetrack's Last Stand

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  Hollywood Park operated as a thoroughbred race course from 1938 until Inglewood shut it down for racing and training in December 2013. Most of the old complex came down in 2014, and crews cleared the rest of the site in late 2016.

  In May 1995, following the Rams' departure for St. Louis, NFL team owners approved a resolution backing a stadium plan for the Los Angeles Raiders. The proposed stadium, privately funded at $200 million, would have risen on Hollywood Park property. Owners passed the resolution 27-1, with two abstentions. Raiders owner Al Davis balked and refused the deal, because it would have forced him to accept a second team at the stadium.

  By the mid-2000s, Hollywood Park's owners had given up on landing an NFL team, and the site was sold with plans for a Walmart Supercenter.

• 4. The Site Fight

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  On the 31st of January 2014, the Los Angeles Times reported that Stan Kroenke had purchased land near the old Hollywood Park site. Kroenke, who owned the St. Louis Rams, bought a 60 acre parcel just north of the property. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Kroenke had informed the league of the purchase, as required of any owner buying land for a possible stadium. Speculation about a Rams return to Los Angeles had already been building, since Kroenke was a finalist to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers.

  Kroenke then stayed silent for nearly a year, never addressing the St. Louis media or the Hollywood Park Land Company about his plans. The NFL settled one open question in the meantime, ruling out any franchise relocation for the 2015 season.

  On the 5th of January 2015, Stockbridge Capital Group announced a partnership with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. Stockbridge, which owned the Hollywood Park Land Company, agreed to build a multi-purpose stadium for the NFL on the site. The reworked development also planned up to 900,000 square feet of retail space, 800,000 square feet of offices, and 2,500 residential units. It also included a hotel with more than 300 rooms and 25 acres of parks and open space. On the 24th of February 2015, the Inglewood City Council approved the plan on a 5-0 vote, rezoning the land for sports and entertainment use.

  On the 19th of February 2015, the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers unveiled a $1.85 billion stadium plan for Carson. It was a rival to the Inglewood project, contingent on the two teams relocating together to Los Angeles. Both projects moved forward through 2015. NFL owners chose between them on the 12th of January 2016, voting 30-2 to approve the Inglewood site and the Rams' relocation to Los Angeles. Construction on the winning site could finally begin, though the bill for building it was only starting to take shape.

• 5. The Price Tag Explodes

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  By 2015, the stadium's private developers were already seeking tax breaks from the city of Inglewood to help finance the project. At the start of construction, the projected cost stood at $2.66 billion.

  Internal NFL documents produced in March 2018 revealed the debt ceiling for the stadium and its facilities needed to rise to $4.963 billion. Team owners approved that increase at a meeting the same month.

  The NFL approved another $500 million in loans in May 2020, pushing the total cost to $5.5 billion. That made SoFi Stadium the most expensive stadium ever built. The price kept climbing even as workers battled delays that had nothing to do with money.

• 6. Built Through Storms

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  Turner Construction and AECOM Hunt took over building the stadium starting on the 14th of July 2016, with HKS, Inc. continuing as architect. The FAA spent more than a year reviewing the design, worried about interference with radar at nearby Los Angeles International Airport. Those concerns echoed earlier warnings from former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Rams owner Stan Kroenke held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site on the 17th of November 2016. Weeks later, on the 16th of December 2016, Sports Business Journal reported that the FAA had refused permits for the cranes needed to build it. FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said, 'We're not going to evaluate any crane applications until our concerns with the overall project are resolved.' The agency reversed course on the 23rd of December 2016 and approved the cranes.

  On the 18th of May 2017, developers announced record rainfall had pushed the stadium's opening back from 2019 to the 2020 NFL season. The stadium reached its topping-out ceremony on the 26th of June 2018. By August 2019, Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff put the project at 75 percent complete. In February 2020, a large crane collapsed at the site, though no one was injured.

  Construction continued in March 2020 as a critical infrastructure project even after California issued stay-at-home orders, and five workers eventually tested positive for COVID-19. On the 5th of June 2020, an ironworker fell to his death through a roof opening left by a removed panel, halting construction. Work resumed everywhere but the roof four days later, on the 9th of June. Demoff, unsure exactly when the doors would open, said only that it would happen 'whether that's in July, August, September, in 2021.'

• 7. From Empty To Sold Out

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  The NFL canceled its entire 2020 preseason, so the Rams held their first practice at the new stadium on the 22nd of August 2020. On the 25th of August, the Rams and the Chargers announced every home game would be played behind closed doors 'until further notice.' A ribbon-cutting ceremony went ahead on the 8th of September, five days before the stadium's first NFL game. The Rams won that game 20-17 over the Dallas Cowboys, in the season's opening Sunday night matchup.

  Taylor Swift's Lover Fest had originally been booked for two nights on the 25th and the 26th of July 2020, to open the stadium. The pandemic canceled those shows. She would eventually close out the American leg of her Eras Tour there in 2023.

  Fans finally filled seats on the 15th of May 2021, the stadium's first crowd of any kind. That day, 4,880 spectators watched LA Giltinis defeat the Utah Warriors 38-27 in a Major League Rugby match. The Rams hosted the Chicago Bears for the first NFL regular-season game with fans present, on the 12th of September 2021. They won 34-14 in front of 70,445 people.

  Over four nights from the 27th of November through the 2nd of December 2021, BTS grossed $33.3 million. The run, called Permission to Dance on Stage, set a stadium record. Billboard called it the highest-grossing concert run in California history and the second-largest in North America, behind a ten-show Bruce Springsteen run at Giants Stadium.

• 8. The Stage Ahead

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  SoFi Stadium hosted its first Super Bowl, Super Bowl LVI, on the 13th of February 2022. The Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 to win the title in their own building. That made SoFi Stadium the first venue to host a conference championship game and the Super Bowl in the same year. It also became only the second stadium, after Raymond James Stadium, to see its home team win the Super Bowl there.

  The stadium will host eight matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. That includes the United States' opening match on the 12th of June 2026 and its third group match on the 25th of June 2026. FIFA's rules on corporate-sponsored names mean the venue will be temporarily called 'Los Angeles Stadium' for the tournament.