Top facts about SoFi Stadium, one of 2028 Summer Olympic venues

SoFi Stadium is a sports and entertainment centre situated in Inglewood, California, USA. SoFi inhabits the site of the former Hollywood Park Racecourse, 3 miles from Los Angeles International Airport and just southeast of The Forum indoor arena.

The hard-roof stadium opened in September 2020, and is the home of the National Football League (NFL) Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams, along with the annual LA Ball for college football.

The facility is part of Hollywood Park, the championship district constructed on the site of the former racetrack. While in October 2016 Hollywood Park Casino reopened in a new building, it proved to be the development's first establishment to open.

SoFi Stadium is one of two stadiums currently owned by two NFL teams, the other being at MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, jointly owned by New York Giants and New York Jets.

It is the first facility outside of the New York metropolitan area to be at the same time the host of two NFL teams; the other three since the 1970 merger between the AFL and NFL were Shea Stadium, Giants Stadium, and MetLife Stadium.

In

professional sports, it is the fourth facility in Greater Los Angeles to be employed by more than one team in the same league.

The venue was the host of Super Bowl LVI on February 13, 2022, and is set to host the National College Football Playoffs in January 2023, WrestleMania 39 in April 2023, and the opening and closing ceremonies (along with soccer and archery tournaments) in the 2028

.

Top facts about SoFi Stadium, one of 2028 Summer Olympic venues

Come along with us to take a closer look at the Top facts about SoFi Stadium, one of 2028 Summer Olympic venues.

SoFi Stadium design

It was designed by HKS as it includes the stadium itself, a pedestrian market and a performance hall. Above the stadium is a freely supported transparent canopy covering the actual stadium, the adjacent pedestrian plaza and the performance venue.

The 1 million square foot cover has consisted of 302 ETFE panels, 46 of which can be opened for ventilation, as they are supported by a cable net.

One of the most amazing top facts about SoFi stadium is that its Canopy has 27,000 internal LEDs so as to project images and videos that are visible from aeroplanes flying to Los Angeles International Airport.

With having open sides, the stadium bowl houses 70,240 audiences for the vast majority of events, while it has even the potential to extend by 30,000 seats for larger events.

Notwithstanding the roof, the open sides of the stadium still make it prone to lightning delays, as the first such delay occurred in an NFL match between Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders on October 4, 2021.

While the capacity of adjoining music and theatre venue, which is recognized as the YouTube Theatre, is 6,000, the stadium and the performance centre are independent facilities under one roof.

Another component of the stadium design is Samsung's Infinity Display, a double-sided oval 4K HDR video board, which is the first of its kind, being mounted from the roof above the field.

The chassis, which before its name change it was previously called "Oculus", has a weight of around 2.2 million pounds (1,000 tons) as it shows 80 million pixels. The Infinity Screen is also equipped with a stadium audio system with 260 speakers and 56 5G wireless antennas.

As one of the most brilliant

top facts about SoFi Stadium

, it is notable to suggest that it has won several industry awards for its design, including: 'Stadium of the Year' in StadiumDB's Jury Award, 2021 'Outstanding Architectural Engineering Project' from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

It also received the Difference in Action Award for the West Basin, Inglewood and other project partners for the recycled water project at SoFi Stadium.

SoFi stadium history

The grounds of the stadium were initially home to Hollywood Park, which was later sold and named Betfair Hollywood Park, being a thoroughbred racetrack from 1938 until its closure for racing and training in December 2013.

A great majority of the complex was destroyed to make way for new construction in 2014, while the remainder was smashed in late 2016 after the Hollywood Park Casino, which remained open even after the track closure, and later moved to a new building.

For this venue, several other stadiums were proposed before the current stadium, while two decades ago, it was actually an NFL stadium.

In May 1995, following that Rams departed for St. Louis, the National Football League team owners agreed by a 27–1 vote with two abstentions, a resolution to support a plan for constructing a $200 million, financially private stadium on property acquired by Hollywood Park for the Los Angeles Raiders.

But Al Davis, who had owned the Raiders at the time, balked and rejected the deal because of the provision that he should accept another team at the stadium too.

It was on January 31, 2014, that according to the Los Angeles Times report, Stan Kroenke, which was the owner of the St. Louis Rams, bought a 60-acre (24 ha) parcel of land just north of the Hollywood Park site which was previously studied by the National Football League for the 1995 Raiders proposal and which the league at one point tried to buy.

It immediately sparked speculation about the location, and what did Krunke intend from purchasing the site. Especially when the venue's former Hollywood Park owner had become reluctant to acquire an NFL stadium for the site in the mid-2000s and it was sold and expected to be a Walmart Supercenter.

Yet in 2014, most of the speculations were focused on the site as a potential stadium site or training facility for the Rams.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Kroenke informed the league of the purchase. As per the owner of the

, any purchase of land on which a possible league stadium is set to be constructed must be revealed to the league.

When kroenke was among the finalists in bidding for ownership in the Los Angeles Dodgers, some speculated about the Rams' coming back to their nearly 50-year-old home, but the speculations were intensified by the news that the Rams owner had a potential stadium site in hand.

Almost a whole year was spent without a word from Kroenke about what he intended to do with ground, as he never address the St. Louis media, or the Hollywood Park Land Company, about the usage of the site.

On the other hand, some speculated about the future of the Rams franchise until it was revealed that the National Football League would not permit a franchise transfer for the 2015 season.

On January 5, 2015, Stockbridge Capital Group, the owner of the Hollywood Park Land Company, confirmed their partnership with Kroenke Sports and Entertainment to add the northern 60-acre (24 ha) parcel to the remaining development project and construct a multifunctional stadium with a capacity of 70,240 seats designed for the NFL.

The project has consisted of a stadium and a performance arts venue connected to the stadium with more than 6,000 capacity.

The previously confirmed Hollywood Park development redesigned to fit the stadium so as to also contain 900,000 square feet (84,000 m2) of retail space, 800,000 square feet (74,000 m2) of office space, 2,500 new residential units, a luxury hotel with more than 300 rooms, 25 acres (10 ha) of public parks, playgrounds, open space, a lake, and pedestrian, bicycle, and public transportation for upcoming services.

On February 24, 2015, Englewood City Council unanimously approved a plan to incorporate 60 acres (24 hectares) plot of land with the larger Hollywood Park development and subdivide the area to contain sports and entertainment potentials.

This mainly paved the way for developers to start building the site as it was planned in December 2015. Reportedly in early February 2015, “the land has been relocated” and the ground has been classified as preparation for construction that was set to be commenced later in the year, while the project was vying directly with competitors' proposal.

On February 19, 2015, the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers revealed their plans for an 8 1.85 billion private stadium that both teams would build in Carson if they moved to the Los Angeles market.

The project, like the Inglewood project, was also approved to move forward and cleared for development. Two projects spent the rest of 2015 trying to obtain NFL approval.

SoFi stadium construction

On July 14, 2016, it was revealed that Turner Construction and AECOM Hunt will supervise the construction of the stadium and architectural firm HKS, Inc. would take the responsibility of designing the stadium.

On October 19, 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the first usage of many pieces of heavy equipment in construction as it specified that a 110-foot (34 m) tall LB 44 rotary drill rig would not cause a navigational risk.

For more than a year, the stadium design had been under FAA scrutiny owing to the raising concerns about the structure interaction radar at nearby Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

On December 16, 2016, it was published in the Journal of Sports Business that the FAA had refused the use of the cranes necessary for constructing the structures.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor had expressed as saying: "We will not evaluate any leverage applications until our concerns about the project as a whole are resolved."

The FAA previously advised constructing the stadium elsewhere owing to the probable risks it may pose to LAX, revealing former US Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge's concerns.

Yet, The Rams hosted the first stone-laying ceremony at the stadium on November 17, 2016. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Rams owner Stan Kroenke joined the ceremony. It was on December 23, 2016, the FAA accepted the use of large construction cranes for the construction of the stadium.

On May 18, 2017, the developers announced that record rainfall in the area delayed the completion and 2019 opening of the Stadium suspended until only the 2020 NFL season.

On August 8, 2017, the LA Stadium Premiere Center opened in Playa Vista, with interactive media displays and models, putting on show the design and features of the new arena (focusing on potential buyers of premium suites and seats at the facility).

In March 2018, the NFL announced that the NFL Media Unit (the unit that organizes the NFL's internal media units, consisting of the NFL Network, Digital Assets and NFL Films) will relocate from Culver City to a new 200,000 m²(19,000 m2) facility near the stadium in the Hollywood Park development.

This facility contains a studio capable of hosting audiences and an outdoor studio as it was finished in 2021. It was on June 26, 2018, that the modern stadium was ceremonially topped out.

In August 2019, a year prior to the scheduled opening, Ram's chief operating officer Kevin Demoff announced that the stadium was 75% complete.

In January 2020, Demoff confirmed that construction was 85 per cent complete, while roof and oculus work, along with seating installation, was still in progress. It was in February 2020 that a large crane crashed, but hopefully, no one sustained any injury.

One of the

top facts about SoFi Stadium

is that even despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, the stadium construction work continued with social distance and high standards of health and safety, due to the fact that the California state government deemed this construction as a critical infrastructure project.

Demoff confessed that yet there was a  possibility that the completion could be delayed and further explained: This 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."

While reportedly five workers tested positive for the Covid, on 5 June 2020, the construction work was suspended following that a metal worker fell to his death through a hole in the roof, created by removing panels for maintenance. Yet, as of June 9, 2020, construction projects continued everywhere except on the roof.

SoFi Stadium momentous events

As one of the other top facts about SoFi Stadium, one can point out that the stadium either has withstood or is set the observe some notable events in the field of NFL, college football,

and soccers of upcoming's Olympics as well as soccer and wrestling.

NFL (Super Bowl LVI)

SoFi Stadium was the host of Super Bowl LVI on February 13, 2022, marking the first Super Bowl featured in the Los Angeles area since Super Bowl Cup Bowl XXVII in 1993.

The stadium was initially granted the Super Bowl LV (2021) at the May 2016 NFL owner's meeting. In May 2017, with the stadium's opening postponed until 2020, the NFL chose to reassign Super Bowl LV to the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa (which was the remaining city in a pool of four that tended to specify the hosts of Super Bowl LIII through LV) while awarding LVI to Los Angeles instead.

Because of the probable problems in the inaugural season, the NFL does not permit a stadium to be the host of the Super Bowl in its first season of operation.

In

, SoFi Stadium becomes the first stadium to be the host the Conference Championship and Super Bowl in the same year.

The Rams were honoured to become the second team to play a Super Bowl in their home stadium, grabbing triumph in the 2021 NFC Championship game.

College Football (College Football Playoff National Ball and LA Bowl)

On November 1, 2017, it was revealed that the stadium would host the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship. The winners of the 2023 Peach and Fiesta Bowls is set to play on January 9, 2023.

Moreover, The Mountain West Conference and Pac-12 play a game of bowling at the SoFi Stadium recognised as the LA Bowl (which is officially known as the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl by Stefel).

The conference tie-ins for the game changed from the Las Vegas Bowl. The game's opening edition in 2021 represented Utah State's 24-13 victory over Oregon State.

Football (FIFA World Cup 2026)

The local candidacy to host the 2026 FIFA

in Los Angeles was organized by private companies led by AEG with the help of the Los Angeles District Sports and Entertainment Commission (SoFi Stadium), LAFC, LA Galaxy and Rose Bowl Stadium.

The Los Angeles City Council approved the proposal after private companies offered to support it and pay for housing costs.

The SoFi Stadium was not selected as the bidding stadium in the winning Canada-Mexico-US bid owing to the fact that the organizing committee excluded the unconstructed stadium from the final evaluation.

The United Bid Committee announced that it would reconsider the venue selection process and revisit SoFi Stadium as their main choice for a stadium in the Los Angeles Metro area by mid-2021. The United States bid to be the host of the World Cup was granted by FIFA on June 13, 2018.

2028 Summer Olympics

SoFi Stadium would be the venue of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2028 Paralympic Games and Summer Olympics (as organizers proposed split format for the Olympics, incorporation with the Colosseum Memorial In Los Angeles).

One of the other

top facts about SoFi Stadium

is that it would also host archery and soccer (

) matches too.

WrestleMania

In February 2020, WWE confirmed that SoFi Stadium would be the host of WrestleMania 37 on March 28, 2021, which was the 2021 edition of its flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view.

This is while in April 2019, the Los Angeles Times had already confirmed that in April 2019 that SoFi Stadium was a "front-runner" to host a future edition of the event.

Among the top facts about SoFi Stadium, it is notable to suggest that when WrestleMania 36 did not take place in 2020 live at Raymond James Stadium in the cope of COVID-19, WWE revealed on January 16, 2021, that Inglewood would be postponed to WrestleMania 39 on April 2, 2023, in favour of WrestleMania 37 in Tampie.

WrestleMania 39 will be the sixth time WrestleMania that is set to incur in the Greater Los Angeles Area, as it was most recently held in 2005 at the Staples Center.

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