No, it’s not which song’s Katy Perry will be singing at the halftime show and it’s not even the fact that the stadium has a retractable roof (like puh-leaaase, even Rod Laver arena has one of those!). This year’s Superbowl stadium in Phoenix, Arizona, has a retractable floor.
We know what you have in your head right now.
It’s not quite like the 80’s cartoon “trapdoor”.
No, i’ts not like the classic 80’s cartoon trapdoor where organisers can conveniently dispose of injured gladiators players through the floor where a monster will devour them. Unfortunately it is only for the convenience of converting the stadium for multi-purpose use.
In fact the whole surface of the stadium can be wheeled into the outside car park in just under an hour. This means that not only does the field get sunlight on it, but also takes care of having to dismantle and resurface the field after say, 20,000 teens descend upon the stadium floor for a Katy Perry Concert. The grass lives in its outside home most days which also allows sports teams to continue training whilst the stadium is being used for other purposes.
The stadium wheels outside for optimum sunlight and all-year-round training
Here are some more facts about the University of Phoenix’s awesome stadium:
- The field weighs around 9,000 tons
- The stadium holds a maximum of 79,000 people when the grass is removed and around 70,000 when the grass is inside.
- The stadium is home turf of the Arizona Cardinals who were hopefuls for this year’s Superbowl until they lost their quarterback to an injury and all hope was destroyed.
- No team in the superbowl has EVER competed in their home city… ever. The stadiums are rotated around the USA each year and bidding is as competitive as the FIFA World Cup of the Olympics.
- The Superbowl is always proceeded by roman numerals (eg. . Why? Because it avoids confusion by naming it Superbowl 49 which could imply it was the superbowl of 1949. Congruently, the google search term “how to read roman numerals” is also considerably more googled in the week before the superbowl than any other time of the year.
- The stadium has a few parking spots. 14,000 to be exact. Too bad if you lose your car!
Here’s a gallery of other awesome stadium things – Stadium Porn!
The stadium take about an hour to empty the field to the outside.
