Take a Look Inside an NFL Stadium Hours Before Kickoff

To prepare the field for an NFL game in less than 18 hours, crews have to strip and repaint the field, clean 2 million square feet of stadium space, and fire up thousands of meals in crowded kitchens, all in a matter of hours.

The first step in clearing the field and prepping for it to be painted with the Falcons’ logo is collecting roughly 5 million pieces of confetti launched from confetti cannons.

Cleanup crews use rakes, leaf blowers, and utility vehicles fitted with large nets to collect every last piece — even the smallest piece of debris can interfere with repainting the turf.

The paint removal process takes around one to two hours to complete.

To speed things up, P-Rex machines spray a cleaning solution onto painted logos and use spinning brushes and a vacuum to remove the paint.

The process is surprisingly precise. Too many chemicals can soak the turf, and too much pressure can permanently damage the field.

Every area has to be cleared of waste, including the private suites, locker rooms, kitchens, and stadium bowl seating.

In the seating bowl, workers hand-pick everything from aluminum cans and plastic bottles to food containers and pom-poms, with each person assigned a specific type of waste to speed up sorting.

By the end of the cleanup process, crews will have collected hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash.

After trash is collected from the stands, power-washing crews race behind the waste-collecting crews, scrubbing away spills and sticky residue before the next crowd arrives.

Even though waste is pre-sorted, each bag still has to be inspected.

The goal: recycle or compost 96% of all waste generated during the event.

Once paint is removed from the field, the turf must completely dry before repainting can begin.

Grounds crews use this small window of time to prep stencils and get ready to tackle the “hot areas” of the field — the center logo and the end zones — which are the most time-consuming.

The logo is hand-painted using spraying machines that ensure accuracy.

Crews have to pay special attention to the sidelines and end zones to ensure everything is up to code before kickoff.

By midnight, all painting is finally finished.

About 100 cooks prepare different menus for concessions, suites, catering, and eight all-inclusive clubs — some serving up to 1,000 people.

At this game, the stadium’s food team sold more than 25,000 hot dogs, 10,000 slices of pizza, and over 5,000 pounds of wings.

The menu changes for every event, and food is largely prepared in a central kitchen and distributed to multiple secondary kitchens throughout the stadium.

Executive chef Matt Cooper told Business Insider that having detailed boards allows him to keep track of his massive team and ensure everything runs smoothly.

“This is the magic behind everything we do,” he said. “We have all the chefs, all the supervisors, junior sous chefs, all the cooks, and we’re able to kind of move the pieces around. It’s a big kitchen, a lot of space, and I love being able to kind of visualize and see the whole team.”

At the same time, club spaces are stocked with fruit and sandwich trays, employees place fan giveaway items on every seat inside the stadium, and excitement builds for kickoff.

Lights flash, cameras roll, fans cheer, and players take the field, with most of the stadium’s attendees oblivious to the overnight operation that made it all happen.

When the final whistle blows, it’s mere hours before employees at Mercedes-Benz Stadium start planning for the next event.