LOS ANGELES — Super Bowl LVI is expected to be one of the three most blistering in NFL history – and it could actually break the record for hottest of them all, according to CBS Sports.
The Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams kick off at 3:30 p.m. PT – around when the sun will still feel most intense. While it’ll already be past sunset here in Tampa, the west coast time difference means it’ll be a scorcher at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, which sits in southwestern LA County.
Our sister-station WCNC says California has been feeling above-average heat all week. There’s even a heat advisory stretching from LA to the US-Mexico border.
CBS says temperatures are forecast to hit 84 degrees Fahrenheit by kickoff. If that happens, it’ll tie the record for most searing Super Bowl. It was another LA Super Bowl – the one in 1973 – that last reached the 84-degree mark. The 2003 big game in San Diego made it to 81.
And those inside will feel that heat. While SoFi Stadium technically has a roof, it’s not exactly an indoor venue – which fans were reminded of during a lightning delay in October.
The Athletic describes the venue design like this: There’s basically a big canopy over the field, but the sides of the stadium are open. Together, the sun and the turf can make it feel pretty toasty at field-level when it’s hot out.
And, don’t count on air conditioning. As, the Washington Post points out, there’s no large-scale AC at SoFi. Rather, the newspaper says panels can be opened up to cool the stadium down – but only by four degrees or so.
The designers tried to be smart. CBS says they designed the roof to help with temperature regulation and developed the sides in a way that lets the breeze flow. But, Sunday will be the big test – as temperatures soar well above normal for this time of year.
Temperatures aside, the state-of-the-art SoFi is something to behold. In all, it’s an astounding 3.1 million-square-foot mammoth that sits next to a six-acre lake, writes CNN.
When the $5 billion stadium opened in 2020 and became the joint home to the Rams and Charges, the cable network says it became the first hybrid “indoor-outdoor” stadium in the NFL.