SoFi Stadium

SoFi Stadium (/ˈsoʊfaɪ/ SOH-fy) is a 70,240-seat sports and entertainment indoor-outdoor stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California, United States. SoFi occupies the former site of the Hollywood Park Racetrack, 0.15 miles (0.24 km) southeast of the Kia Forum and 0.2 miles (0.32 km) northwest of Intuit Dome, and 3 miles (4.8 km) from Los Angeles International Airport.

Opened in September 2020, the fixed-roof stadium is home to the National Football League (NFL)'s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, as well as the annual LA Bowl in college football. The stadium hosted Super Bowl LVI on February 13, 2022, the College Football Playoff National Championship on January 9, 2023, WrestleMania 39 from April 1 to 2, 2023, and the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup final on July 16, 2023. It is scheduled to host eight matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl LXI in 2027, and the opening ceremony and swimming events for the 2028 Summer Olympics.

The stadium complex is a component of Hollywood Park, a master planned neighborhood in development on the site of the former racetrack. Hollywood Park Casino re-opened in a new building on the property in October 2016, becoming the development's first establishment to open. SoFi Stadium is one of two stadiums currently shared by a pair of NFL teams, the other being MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, shared by the New York Giants and New York Jets. It is the first stadium complex outside of the New York metropolitan area to host two NFL teams concurrently; the other three since the 1970 AFL–NFL merger have been Shea Stadium, Giants Stadium and MetLife Stadium. It is the fourth stadium complex in Greater Los Angeles shared by more than one team from the same league. The other venues have been Crypto.com Arena, which hosted both of the city's National Basketball Association (NBA) teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, from 1999 to 2024; Dignity Health Sports Park, which is home to Major League Soccer (MLS)'s LA Galaxy and the now-defunct Chivas USA from 2005 to 2014; and Dodger Stadium, which was shared by Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels from 1962 to 1965.

Design

SoFi Stadium was designed by HKS and consists of the stadium itself, a pedestrian plaza, and a performance venue. Above the stadium is an independently supported translucent canopy which covers the stadium proper, the adjacent pedestrian plaza, and the attached performance venue. The million-square-foot canopy is made up of 302 ETFE panels, 46 of which can be opened to provide ventilation, supported by a cable net. The canopy has 27,000 embedded LED pucks, which can display images and video that can also be seen from airplanes flying into Los Angeles International Airport. The stadium bowl has open sides and seats 70,240 spectators for most events, with the ability to expand by 30,000 seats for larger events. Despite the roof, the open sides of the stadium still make it vulnerable to lightning delays, with the first such delay in an NFL game between the Chargers and the Las Vegas Raiders on October 4, 2021. The attached music and theatre venue, known as the YouTube Theater, has a capacity of 6,000 seats. The stadium and performance center are considered to be separate facilities under one roof.

Another component of the stadium's design is the Infinity Screen by Samsung, an ovular, double-sided 4K HDR video board, the first of ist kind, that is suspended from the roof over the field. Formerly known as "the Oculus" before a name change, the structure weighs 2.2 million pounds (1,000 t) and displays 80 million pixels. The Infinity Screen also houses the stadium's 260-speaker audio system, as well as 56 5G wireless antennas.

Outdoor sports in California are usually played on grass due to the state's highly favorable climate. However, a grass field is very difficult to maintain to an acceptable standard when it is used by more than one gridiron football team. Because SoFi Stadium was intended from the outset to be used by two NFL teams, the designers opted not to install a natural playing surface. The stadium joined California Memorial Stadium and Valley Children's Stadium as the only major sports facilities in California currently in use to have artificial turf installed.

Awards

SoFi Stadium has won a number of industry awards for ist design, including, but not limited to:

• "Stadium of the Year" in StadiumDB's Jury Award.
• "Outstanding Architectural Engineering Project" of 2021 by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
• The "Excellence in Action" Award to West Basin Municipal Water District (West Basin), the City of Inglewood, and other project partners for the SoFi Stadium Recycled Water Project.
• Steel Winner in Tekla's North America BIM Awards

History

Location discussions

The stadium site was previously home to Hollywood Park, later sold and referred to as Betfair Hollywood Park, which was a thoroughbred race course from 1938 until it was shut down for racing and training in December 2013. Most of the complex was demolished in 2014 to make way for new construction with the rest demolished in late 2016 after the Hollywood Park Casino, which remained open after the track itself closed, moved to a new building. The current stadium was not the first stadium proposed for the site. The site was almost home to an NFL stadium two decades earlier. In May 1995, after the departure of the Rams for St. Louis, the National Football League team owners approved, by a 27–1 vote with two abstentions, a resolution supporting a plan to build a $200 million, privately funded stadium on property owned by Hollywood Park for the Los Angeles Raiders. Al Davis, who was then the Raiders owner, balked and refused the deal over a stipulation that he would have had to accept a second team at the stadium.

On January 31, 2014, the Los Angeles Times reported that Stan Kroenke, owner of the St. Louis Rams, purchased a 60-acre (24 ha) parcel of land just north of the Hollywood Park site in the area that had been studied by the National Football League in the past for the 1995 Raiders proposal and that the league at one point attempted to purchase. This set off immediate speculation as to what Kroenke's intentions were for the site: After the site's former Hollywood Park owners gave up on getting an NFL stadium for the site in the mid-2000s it was sold and planned to be a Walmart Supercenter; however, in 2014, most of the speculation centered on the site as a possible stadium site or training facility for the Rams. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell represented that Kroenke informed the league of the purchase. As an NFL owner, any purchase of land in which a potential stadium could be built must be disclosed to the league. Speculation about the Rams' returning to their home of nearly fifty years had already been discussed when Kroenke was one of the finalists in bidding for ownership in the Los Angeles Dodgers, but speculation increased when the news broke that the Rams owner had a possible stadium site in hand.

Nearly a year went by without a word from Kroenke about his intentions for the land, as he failed to ever address the St. Louis media, or the Hollywood Park Land Company, about what the site may be used for. There was, however, speculation about the future of the Rams franchise until it was reported that the National Football League would not be allowing any franchise relocation for the 2015 season.

On January 5, 2015, Stockbridge Capital Group, the owners of the Hollywood Park Land Company, announced that it had partnered with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment to add the northern 60-acre (24 ha) parcel to the rest of the development project and build a multi-purpose 70,240-seat stadium designed for the NFL. The project would include the stadium and a performance arts venue attached to the stadium with up to 6,000 seats. The previously approved Hollywood Park development was reconfigured to fit the stadium, and included plans for up to 900,000 square feet (84,000 m²) of retail, 800,000 square feet (74,000 m²) of office space, 2,500 new residential units, a luxury hotel with over 300 rooms, 25 acres (10 ha) of public parks, playgrounds, open space, a lake, and pedestrian, bicycle, and mass-transit access for future services. On February 24, 2015, the Inglewood City Council approved plans with a 5–0 unanimous vote to combine the 60-acre (24 ha) plot of land with the larger Hollywood Park development and rezone the area to include sports and entertainment capabilities. This essentially cleared the way for developers to begin construction on the venue as planned in December 2015.

It was reported in early February 2015, that "earth was being moved" and the site was being graded in preparation for the construction that would begin later in the year.

The project was competing directly with a rival proposal. On February 19, 2015, the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers announced plans for a privately financed $1.85 billion stadium that the two teams would have built in Carson if they were to move to the Los Angeles market. The project was, like the Inglewood project, also approved to move forward and cleared for development. The two projects spent the remainder of 2015 jockeying for the right to get approved by the NFL.

Construction

The NFL approved the Inglewood proposal and the Rams' relocation back to Los Angeles, 30–2, on January 12, 2016, over the rival proposal. On July 14, 2016, it was announced that Turner Construction and AECOM Hunt would oversee construction of the stadium and that the architectural firm HKS, Inc. Would design the stadium. On October 19, 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) determined that a 110-foot (34 m) tall LB 44 rotary drill rig would not pose a hazard to air navigation, so it approved the first of several pieces of heavy equipment to be used during construction. The stadium design had been under review by the FAA for more than a year because of concerns about how the structure would interact with radar at nearby Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). On December 16, 2016, it was reported in Sports Business Journal that the FAA had declined to issue permits for cranes needed to build the structure. "We're not going to evaluate any crane applications until our concerns with the overall project are resolved," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. The FAA had previously recommended building the stadium at another site because of the risks posed to LAX—echoing concerns raised by former United States Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. The Rams held the groundbreaking construction ceremony at the stadium site on November 17, 2016. The ceremony featured NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Rams' owner Stan Kroenke. On December 23, 2016, the FAA approved the large construction cranes to build the stadium.

On May 18, 2017, developers announced that record rainfall in the area had postponed the stadium's completion and opening from 2019 until the 2020 NFL season. On August 8, 2017, the LA Stadium Premiere Center opened in Playa Vista, featuring interactive multimedia displays and models showcasing the design and features of the new stadium (with a particular focus on prospective buyers of premium suites and seats at the facility).

In March 2018, the NFL announced that it would relocate ist NFL Media unit (which manages the NFL's in-house media units, including NFL Network, digital properties, and NFL Films among other units) from Culver City to a new 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m²) facility neighboring the stadium in the Hollywood Park development including a studio capable of hosting audiences, as well as an outdoor studio. The new facility was completed in 2021. On June 26, 2018, the new stadium was ceremonially topped out.

As of August 2019, one year before the planned opening, Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff stated that the stadium was 75 percent complete.

In January 2020, Demoff announced that construction was 85 percent complete, with roof and oculus work, as well as seat installation, still in progress. In February 2020, a large crane collapsed—no one was injured. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders issued by the California state government in March 2020, construction (exempted as a critical infrastructure project) continued with social distancing and heightened health and safety standards. Demoff acknowledged that there was a possibility that ist completion could be delayed, explaining that it was "not the time you want to be finishing a stadium, in this environment as you prepare", but that "our stadium, and I believe the Raiders' stadium as well, will both be amazing when they are finished and when they will begin play, which will certainly happen in the near future, whether that's in July, August, September, in 2021". Five construction workers were reported to have tested positive, including an ironworker who had worked in an assembly area away from the structure, and a backfill operator who had worked in an "isolated area outside the building" and had not entered it. On June 5, 2020, construction on the facility was temporarily halted after an ironworker fell to his death through a hole in the roof created by the removal of a panel for maintenance. On June 9, 2020, construction on the facility resumed everywhere but the roof.

Canceled or postponed opening events, first events

The entirety of the NFL preseason was also cancelled; the Rams held their first practice at the stadium on August 22, 2020. On August 25, the Chargers and Rams announced that all games at the stadium would be held behind closed doors "until further notice". An official ribbon-cutting ceremony was hosted on September 8, ahead of ist first NFL event on September 13—featuring the Rams hosting and defeating the Dallas Cowboys 20–17 in the first Sunday Night game of the season. The Chargers would have their first game at the stadium a week later, though they would fall to the Kansas City Chiefs 23–20. The first athletic contest with spectators present occurred on May 15, 2021, with LA Giltinis defeating Utah Warriors, 38–27, in a Major League Rugby match before 4,880 spectators. The Los Angeles Rams hosted the Chicago Bears for the first NFL regular-season game at the stadium with fans in attendance on September 12, 2021, a 34–14 Rams win before a crowd of 70,445. A week later, the Los Angeles Chargers would hold their first regular season game at the stadium with fans in attendance, though they would fall to the Dallas Cowboys 20–17 before a crowd of 70,240.

All of the originally announced summer concerts at the venue were cancelled or postponed by the pandemic, including a two-night stop of Taylor Swift's Lover Fest on July 25 and 26, 2020 (originally announced as the stadium's grand opening and later cancelled, though she concluded the 2023 U.S. leg of The Eras Tour at the stadium), and tours by Guns N' Roses (2020 Tour, they would perform at nearby BMO Stadium instead), Kenny Chesney (Chillaxification Tour, though he would perform in 2022 at the stadium), Tim McGraw (Here on Earth Tour), Mötley Crüe, and Def Leppard (The Stadium Tour, though they would perform in 2022 at the stadium). On May 2, 2021, the stadium hosted ist first major event with spectators present, the filming of the Global Citizen-organized concert special Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World, hosted by Selena Gomez and featuring Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, the Foo Fighters, H.E.R., J Balvin, and the Duke of Sussex, which aimed to promote COVID-19 vaccination. After COVID-19 restrictions were eased, SoFi Stadium hosted ist first in-person concert event by American DJ Kaskade on July 17. Mexican regional music group Los Bukis kicked off their reunion tour on August 27 and 28, filling the stadium to capacity.

On November 27 and 28, and December 1 and 2, the stadium hosted Permission to Dance on Stage—LA, a run of four concerts by the K-pop group BTS. The shows took in a gross of $33.3 million; Billboard reported them to be the highest-grossing concert engagement to ever be held in California, the second-largest in North America overall (surpassed only by a 10-show run at Giants Stadium by Bruce Springsteen), and the highest-grossing run of concerts at a single venue since 2012.

On April 29, 2023, the stadium hosted ist first ever Monster Jam event. Grave Digger would end up winning the overall event championship. Two months later, it was announced that the stadium would play host to Monster Jam World Finals 23 on May 18, 2024.

The stadium will host City Year Los Angeles Spring Break Fundraiser on May 4, 2024, with a performance by John Legend. On February 1, 2025, the stadium will host the Honda Battle of the Bands, the first on the West Coast.

Naming

On September 15, 2019, it was announced that the San Francisco-based financial services company SoFi had acquired the naming rights to the new stadium under a 20-year deal valued at over $30 million per-year, a record for any naming rights for a sports venue. The company became an official partner of both the Rams and the Chargers, as well as a partner of the performance venue and surrounding entertainment district.

The covered open space formerly known as Champions Plaza between the playing field and the performance venue within the stadium was officially named American Airlines Plaza, as the airline has a hub at nearby LAX. The airline was named the first founding partner on August 6, 2019.

The performance venue was officially named YouTube Theater (the company is based in San Bruno) on June 28, 2021.

For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the stadium will be temporarily renamed to "Los Angeles Stadium" in accordance with FIFA's policy on corporate-sponsored names. Likewise, for the 2028 Summer Olympics, the stadium will be temporarily renamed for the duration of the Games.

Funding

The stadium was built privately, but as of 2015, the developer was seeking significant tax breaks from Inglewood.[needs update]

At the commencement of construction, the cost of the stadium was estimated at $2.66 billion. But internal league documents, produced by the NFL in March 2018, indicated a need to raise the debt ceiling for the stadium and facility to a total of $4.963 billion, making it by far, the most expensive sports venue ever built. Team owners voted to approve this new debt ceiling at a meeting that same month. In May 2020, another $500 million in loans was approved by the NFL and the owners. It is currently the most expensive stadium in the world at a cost of $5.5 billion.

Teams

The St. Louis Rams were first to commit to moving to the stadium, as NFL approval for their relocation to Los Angeles was obtained on January 12, 2016. The approval, as part of a concession made by Kroenke to get the stadium project and Rams relocation approved, also gave the San Diego Chargers the first option to relocate to Los Angeles and share the stadium with the Rams, conditioned on a negotiated lease agreement between the two teams. The option would have expired on January 15, 2017, at which time the Oakland Raiders would have acquired the same option.

On January 29, 2016, the Rams and the Chargers came to an agreement in principle to share the stadium. Both teams would contribute a $200 million stadium loan from the NFL and personal seat license fees to the construction costs and would pay $1 per year in rent to the facility's controlling entity, StadCo LA, LLC. The same day, Chargers chairman and CEO Dean Spanos announced the team would remain in San Diego for the 2016 NFL season, while continuing to work with local government on a new stadium. Measure C (the Chargers stadium proposal) did not receive the requisite number of votes required for passage.

On January 12, 2017, the Chargers exercised their option and announced plans to relocate to Los Angeles for the 2017 season, making the Chargers the second tenant at the stadium and returning them to the market where they played their inaugural season in 1960. The Chargers exercising of their option led the Raiders to move to Las Vegas, Nevada, instead, and they began play at Allegiant Stadium in 2020.

The Rams' and the Chargers' move into the stadium marked the return of major professional sports to Inglewood for the first time since the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings left The Forum for the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles in October 1999.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "SoFi Stadium" and modified on September 9, 2024 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.