Mercedes-Benz Stadium Roof Will Be Closed During Super Bowl LIII
By JORDAN DAJANI
(247 SPORTS) - There are many questions heading into Super Bowl LIII. Can Tom Brady keep up his incredible play? Is Todd Gurley 100 percent healthy? How many plays will Tony Romo predict correctly? Another big question for fans watching the Super Bowl in Mercedes-Benz Stadium is if the roof will be open or closed for the big game.
Just hours before the Super Bowl, ESPN's Adam Schefter broke the news that the roof will be open for pre-game, but closed for the game itself.
"Mercedes-Benz Stadium roof will be closed during on-field warmups and then open for pre-game festivities, per league official," Schefter tweeted. "It will close after the flyover during the National Anthem and remain closed during game, when temperatures outside are forecasted to be in low 50s."
Earlier this week, 247Sports got a chance to meet with stadium general manager Scott Jenkins, and he said that the NFL's decision on the roof will depend on the weather.
"We would love it to be open," Jenkins said. Let's see if the sun shines and the weather corporates. We would like to show it off. It's a beautiful roof and we're going to see what the weather holds."
While the city of Atlanta isn't expecting any kind of major weather, the temperature being in the low 50's could probably be considered cold to some people, and it's all about the comfort of fans at this point.
"We're thinking about exactly fan comfort right now, Jenkins said. "We may just open it possibly for a short time and close it again as part of the pregame. So at that rate, it gives us a little more leeway on the temperature. But it's going to be based on comfort for the fans."
The city of Atlanta and Falcons owner Arthur Blank would love to show off their state of the art roof during the biggest sporting event of the year, but it looks like they will just have to be satisfied with the flyover.
Super Bowl LIII between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams is set to kick off at 6:30 PM ET.
