LOS ANGELES _ The low-slung stadium in Inglewood shimmers amid palm trees and parking lots and a six-acre artificial lake, an artist's rendering finally brought to life.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke poured six years and at least $5 billion into the 3.1-million-square-foot building that looks as if it arrived from another world.
SoFi Stadium's swooping lines are an homage to the curves of California's coast. Much of the asymmetrical roof is transparent, using ETFE panels that are as clear as a windshield and strong enough to support an auto.
Perforated aluminum triangles _ the pattern on each is unique _ form the skin of roof, bordering the transparent portion and changing colors with the sun.
The sides of the stadium are open to the elements, allowing breezes to flow past 38 massive blade columns that support the building. The field is sunk nearly 100 feet into the ground.
Everything seems to be on an amplified scale. There's the 120-yard halo-shaped video board suspended above the field, the 2 {-acre open-air plaza and 6,000-seat performance venue that share the same roof as the stadium, the canyons where patrons descend into the structure that are themed with indigenous flora and fauna from different regions of California.
"It's iconic," said Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner and Los Angeles native who played a key role in pushing the ambitious project forward. "I've tried to run from the word. But this stadium, there was no way Stan was going to cut costs in any way that would compromise the overall, long-term sense of quality or value. It needs to be like Mt. Rushmore."
The privately financed stadium is the centerpiece of a 298-acre development that's three times the size of Disneyland. Plans call for the site where the Hollywood Park racetrack operated for 75 years to eventually be filled with millions of square feet of retail, restaurants, office space, residences and parks.
Everything revolves around the 70,240-seat stadium, the most expensive built in the U.S., if not the world, and the biggest created for football.
But the sweeping grace of the edifice stands stark in contrast to the difficulty in transforming the vision into concrete-and-steel reality.
"For all the twists and turns over the past five years, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park are exactly the vision laid out in 2016," said Kevin Demoff, chief operating officer of the Rams.
There was the sharp-elbowed competition between the Rams and Chargers, who will share the stadium, for the right to return the NFL to Los Angeles after the league's two-decade absence. The record rainfall that delayed the building's opening by a year. The ballooning price tag. The deaths of two construction workers. The novel coronavirus outbreak that infected dozens of workers and wiped out carefully orchestrated opening plans. Until further notice, the public will be able to see SoFi Stadium only from a distance.
Building a stadium isn't easy.
