The Vision and Construction
Los Angeles Stadium, permanently known as SoFi Stadium, stands in Inglewood, California within Hollywood Park development. The stadium was designed by HKS Architects with structural engineering by Walter P Moore. Development began in November 2016, and the venue opened September 8, 2020.
The stadium cost $5 billion (KES 646 billion) to build, making it the most expensive sports stadium ever constructed. Rams owner E. Stanley Kroenke privately funded the entire project. Kroenke is also the owner of Arsenal FC in England, with his company Kroenke Sports & Entertainment taking full control of the Premier League club in 2018. Construction took nearly four years with heavy rainfall delaying the opening by one year beyond the original 2019 target.
Inside the magnificent stadium /The New York Times
The engineering team faced unprecedented challenges. The stadium sits just 500 yards from an active earthquake fault and directly below two primary flight approach paths to Los Angeles International Airport, three miles away. Engineers excavated 100 feet below grade, creating the deepest seating bowl in NFL history. Over seven million cubic yards of dirt were removed from the stadium bowl alone.
Nearly 100,000 tons of steel and cable were installed alongside 144,000 cubic yards of concrete. At peak construction, up to 3,500 workers were on-site daily. More than 17,000 workers contributed to the project with over 18 million worker hours completed.
World Cup Debut and International Events
Los Angeles Stadium became home to both the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers when it opened in 2020. The venue hosted Super Bowl LVI in 2022 between the Bengals and Rams.
The stadium has hosted numerous world-class events including the College Football Championship. It will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 2028, making it the only venue to host both FIFA World Cup matches and Olympic ceremonies.
Engineering Revolution and Translucent Roof Design
The stadium's signature feature is its open-ended, semi-translucent roof canopy spanning 1.1 million square feet. The roof uses ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene), a lightweight, semi-transparent plastic that creates the world's largest cable net roof structure.
The canopy comprises three parts: the structural steel shell including the compression ring, the cable net system, and the ETFE membrane. The roof contains 34,789 unique panels, each with different perforation and shape. The ETFE features a 65 percent frit pattern that blocks UV rays and prevents sunburn during hot Los Angeles summers.
The stunning roof /Citizen
The roof enables sunlight to shine inside while allowing ocean breezes from five miles away to be felt. The design acts as a natural cooler, making the seating bowl approximately 4 degrees cooler than outside temperature. The canopy is moveable, designed for wind sway and coastal breezes, and secured with four anchor points for earthquake stability.
The Samsung Infinity Screen, called the Oculus, is the world's largest center-hung videoboard measuring 120 yards long and four floors tall. It weighs 2.2 million pounds and features 70,000 square feet of 4K video with nearly 80 million pixels on both sides. Its size and weight were designed into the structure, stabilizing the roof.
Modern Setup for 2026
Los Angeles Stadium will host eight matches at the World Cup including the USA opener, Belgium, Switzerland, Iran, New Zealand group stage games, two Round of 32 matches, and a Quarter-Final on July 10.
The stadium seats 70,000 for sporting events and can expand to 100,000 for special events. It features 12 clubs and lounges with 13,000 premium seats plus 260 luxury suites. The 6,000-seat YouTube Theater is located at the Southeast end of the complex.
The open-air stadium is the first indoor-outdoor facility constructed in the NFL. It became the first football stadium built in Los Angeles in nearly a century.
What Makes It Unique
The stadium is an engineering masterpiece located in Inglewood. The seating bowl sits 100 feet below existing grade, more than twice the depth of similar venues. This creates a free-standing basin with a playing surface twice as low as any other NFL stadium.
The 37 concrete columns support the 1.2 million square foot roof canopy with over 800,000 square feet of translucent panels. The canopy contains over 20 million ventilation holes supported by a steel framework weighing 500 million pounds.
Los Angeles Stadium stands within Hollywood Park, a near 300-acre mixed-use development that is 3.5 times the total area of Disneyland and twice the size of Vatican City. The development includes Lake Park, a central water feature with upper and lower lakes bridged by waterfalls totaling approximately 16 million gallons volume.
The stadium has three independent seismically separated structural systems shaded by the swooping roof. This design adheres to local height requirements while maintaining structural integrity along the active flight path.
Los Angeles will host World Cup matches June 12 through July 10 at Los Angeles Stadium. The venue will host Match 4 on June 13, 2026 at 9:00 PM with USA vs Paraguay in Group D.
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