LA Rams Set To Open World's Most Expensive Stadium Without Fans

When Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke poured at least $5 billion into SoFi Stadium, he likely didn’t envision opening the world’s most expensive sports facility without a single paying customer in attendance.

That’s going to be the case, however, on Sept. 13 for Week 1 of the 2020 NFL season. The Rams will host the Dallas Cowboys without fans in seats.

SoFi Stadium will be home to both the Rams and Chargers. Construction began on the project in November 2016 when it was set to cost $2.6 billion. The price rose exponentially in part because of new design measures that are supposed to protect the stadium from earthquakes, The Athletic reported earlier this year.

A Taylor Swift concert on July 25 had been scheduled to open SoFi Stadium. It was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Most NFL teams will start the season playing games in empty stadiums, just as the NBA, MLB and WNBA have done over the last few months. The Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys are in the minority, planning to begin the year with limited-capacity seating.

On Aug. 25, it was announced that SoFi Stadium would not host fans during games “until further notice.” If that turns into the entire season, it will cost Los Angeles’ football teams a sizeable amount of lost revenue.

The Chargers play their first home game on Sept. 20 against the Chiefs.

Forbes estimated in May that the Rams would lose $121 million in revenue by playing a full schedule without paying customers. Games with no fans could cost the Chargers $93 million in revenue.

There’s been so much anticipation for SoFi Stadium that the Science Channel will broadcast a two-hour special on Sept. 9, showcasing the venue and how it was built. It took approximately 3,000 daily construction workers more than 10 million total worker hours to erect the stadium.

SoFi Stadium has a capacity of 70,000, though that can be expanded to hold 100,000 people. It features a 77,000-square foot video board, which weighs 2.4 million pounds.