In December, I went with my dad to see the Los Angeles Chargers battle his favorite team, the New York Giants. I had never been to a NFL stadium before but was excited to see something new.

With Super Bowl LVI just around the corner, it seems appropriate to talk about where this year’s big game was hosted: SoFi Stadium.

Located in Inglewood, SoFi Stadium is home to the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers and Rams, the latter of whom play the Cincinnati Bengals in Sunday’s NFL title game.

This was my first time attending an NFL game, and I was overwhelmed by how revolutionary the stadium was as a sports venue. Among the stadium’s many landmarks is a man-made lake, named after recently retired Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, and sculptures around the lake, which is directly adjacent to the stadium.

Attached to the southeast corner of the stadium is the YouTube Theater, a 6,000-seat venue that hosted its first concert last July featuring the band Caifanes.

Inside the state-of-the art stadium, there’s an ovular jumbotron with a double-sided 4K HDR scoreboard that weighs more than 2.2 million pounds. It is the first of its kind.

Construction  on the stadium started in 2016 after the Rams announced their relocation from St. Louis back to Los Angeles, where the team played from 1946-1994.

Fans reacted with excitement in California, but fans in St. Louis, who had the team from 1995-2015, felt betrayed.

The site of SoFi Stadium was the former home of the Hollywood Park Racetrack, which opened in 1938 before shutting down in 2013. Originally set to open for the 2019 season, several factors resulted in a one year delay of SoFi’s unveiling.

Because of its close proximity to Los Angeles International Airport, much of the stadium was built below ground level to prevent interference with LAX’s radar and flight paths of incoming planes. A 200 foot deep hole needed to be excavated in order to build the field.

But this wasn’t the only delay that  affected SoFi’s progress. During 2016-17 a series of heavy rains led to construction delays of up to 60 days. The rainwater would fill up the site, which would then have to be pumped out and dried before work could resume.

In early 2017, the Chargers announced their relocation from San Diego to Los Angeles after failing to receive support for a new stadium to replace the dated Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

While the stadium was under construction, the Rams played at the LA Coliseum in Los Angeles, while the Chargers played at the Stub Hub Center on the campus of Cal State University Dominguez Hills in Carson.

SoFi Stadium finally opened in 2020. The construction cost roughly $5.5 billion, making it the most expensive stadium ever built.

It’s inaugural season was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with many events getting canceled or postponed until further notice. During their first season, the Rams and Chargers announced all home games were to be played without fans.

In 2021, fans were finally  allowed inside the stadium, which has won a number of industry awards, including Stadium of the Year and Outstanding Architectural Engineering Project.

It is a revolutionary masterpiece in engineering, and in sports. The two year old stadium is undoubtedly one of the most impressive stadiums in the country, and it’s certainly a revolutionary masterpiece.

SoFi hosted Super Bowl LVI on Sunday, marking the first Super Bowl to be played in the Los Angeles area since 1993. 

With the Rams playing the Bengals, this marks the second year in a row where a team will be hosting the Super Bowl in their home stadium. And if the game is as half as amazing as the stadium, football fans will be in for a real treat.