Raise The Roof
LAB ATL visits Mercedes-Benz Stadium
In February 2019, Lab Atlanta engineering students took a VIP tour inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium to study the infrastructure and design of the gorgeous and ginormous, energy-efficient building.
Home to the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United Football Club, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium is the newly built stadium took 3.25 years to build and opened up on August 26, 2017. The stadium is known for 360° Halo Board, the largest video board in professional sports. But the retractable roof, made from ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, is really what separates apart. The 8-panel roof can retract in an astonishingly quick 7 minutes. The roof design resembles a falcon wing and was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.
The stadium can hold up to a total of 75,000 people in comfortable 21-inch-wide seats. Above of all these seats is the jaw-dropping first ever 63,000-square feet, 360° video screen. The “Halo Board” has more than 82,500 square feet of video. One fun fact is when Atlanta transitioned from the Georgia Dome, the ranking of the scoreboard square footage among teams in the NFL increased from 22nd to 1st!
The Mercedes-Benz Stadium is home to the Atlanta Falcons and host to many iconic events. Among the Falcons many all-stars are Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, and Devonta Freeman. In 2019, Mercedes-Benz Stadium held the Super Bowl and will soon host the SEC Championship, the NCAA Mens Final Four, the Chic-fil-A Peach Bowl, and more!
The soccer team Atlanta United FC is the other team home to the Mercedes Benz Stadium. Atlanta United recently became a team back in 2014, founded by Arthur M. Blank. This soccer team last season won the MLS Cup with the assistance of their franchise players Josef Martinez and Miguel Almiron. If you sit in the “Supporter Section” underneath the bridge, you can literally feel the stadium vibrating from the raucous fans. For the entire game, the fans stand, chant songs, and wave flags.
Our VIP access allowed us to parts of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium like the Falcons and Atlanta United locker room, which most people never get to see. For instance, the Gullwing club pictured above in the top left has unique artwork like a painting made from bank checks as well as a wall of quail feathers. Our trip furthered our love for the Mercedes-Benz Stadium especially since it helps the community we live in. This experience gave us better knowledge of how engineering can foster a sense of teamwork and belonging.
