On Halloween Sunday, Meredith, Dillon, and I traveled to LA to attend the Patriots-Chargers game at SoFi Stadium. It was the first NFL game any of us had attended. (I don’t think I can count the AFL Jets-Boston Patriots game I attended in 1963 at Fenway Park. That was pre-merger.)
Dillon is an uber-fan of the Pats and Meredith is also a fan, when they’re not playing the Packers. I was most interested, frankly, in the stadium. Pictures of it made it seem pretty futuristic, an engineering/architectural marvel.
Parking at the stadium is sold out, so we went to a parking garage near LAX and took a bus to the stadium. Dillon was wearing a Patriots uniform top and he did not stand out among the several fans on the bus similarly attired. While we waited to board, Meredith chatted with, of course, someone who had moved out here from New Hampshire and also in a Pats jersey.
The stadium was constructed with the field 100 feet below grade and the roof rising to 253 feet, so it is sunken to accommodate the overhead flights paths to and from LAX.
It’s a pretty awesome entrance.
Getting to our seats was a trip. They were literally in the last row. And the section was very steep. I was quite winded getting to them and Meredith experienced some dizziness from the experience. She stayed there for the entire game. When Dillon and I went to get food at halftime, I returned to our seats in “phases.”
Fans of opposing teams nearly always (maybe always) outnumber Chargers fans at home games. Certainly this game was no exception, as Patriots fans were substantially present. In a county with 10 million residents (more than 39 states, including New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts), there are going to be lots of fans of other teams.
When the Chargers took the field, there were loud cheers. When the Patriots appeared, there were very loud cheers.
This video will give you a sense of the difference in grade between external and internal.
Our seats, with only the ceiling above us, did give us a good view of the stadium’s superstructure and the heavy cables.
The game (oh yeah, the game) was very close, with the Chargers ahead by one point entering the fourth quarter. A pick-six interception and two-point conversion put the Pats up by seven. They added a field goal to lead by 10. A late drive led by Justin Herbert added a touchdown and extra point with 40 seconds to go, but an onside kick was recovered by the Patriots who then ran out the clock.
Overall, the tone of the game, perhaps surprisingly, was defensive. The Patriots gained 352 yards, 210 passing, while the Chargers passed for 206 yards and rushed for an average of eight yards per carry for 163 yards. New England possessed the ball for more than 10 minutes longer than the Chargers and ran 75 plays, compared to 58 by the Chargers.
LA County regulations required wearing masks throughout the game, except when eating and drinking, and on transportation. Many if not most fans dumped the masks during the game.
I’m glad we went to the game, but I have no interest in attending another. Costs too much, everything is too loud, and the fans are too drunk. Professional and major college sports are operated as entertainment more than sport. The only times when there is not very loud sound is when an actual play takes place, but that is comparatively minuscule and the crowd is loud.
The huge screen was helpful, because we could view play and replays closer than from our seats. But it was more an irritant in that it carried ads and promos as well. Also seemed odd that the statistics presented were not of the game, but of fantasy football stats throughout the league. I can’t imagine something more inane than the announcer screaming SECONNNNDDDD DOWNNNNNNNNNN! every time the Chargers made one. The scream came after every down, but that just seemed more inane.
SoFi is to be surrounded by a 300-acre mixed-use development currently under construction. Plans are for up to five million square feet of office space, a retail district of up to 890,000 square feet, 6,000-seat performance venue, 300-room hotel, and up to 2,500 residences. They will border a six-acre artificial lake and 25 acres of public parks and plazas.
The Forum was once the home of the LA Lakers and the NHL Kings, a sports mecca. They left in 1999 and there are plans to renovate the structure into a concert arena. Opened in late 1967, the structure was also regarded at the time as futuristic. Looks like that not so much in this shot from SoFi. Guess 50+ years will do that to you, says the person who had just turned 21 when the Forum opened.
SoFi Stadium itself contains 3.1 million square feet and can seat 70,240. For events such as a Super Bowl (2022), Olympics, and similar scale events, it can accommodate up to 100,000 fans.
Walking to the stadium, we saw one building already in place — the West Coast headquarters of the National Football League.
