10 Most Expensive NFL Stadiums Ever Built

SoFi Stadium is the most expensive stadium in the NFL, at a widely reported $5.5 billion. Allegiant Stadium is a distant second at $1.97 billion. Even allowing for inconsistent project accounting, nothing else is close enough to challenge SoFi’s top spot.

Most expensive active NFL stadiums ranked

The table uses nominal dollars reported around completion. It does not adjust an older stadium’s price into 2026 dollars, because mixing nominal and adjusted numbers creates a ranking that cannot be reproduced.

Rank	Stadium	Team(s)	Opened	Reported project cost
1	SoFi Stadium	Rams, Chargers	2020	About $5.5 billion
2	Allegiant Stadium	Raiders	2020	$1.97 billion
3	MetLife Stadium	Giants, Jets	2010	About $1.6 billion
4	Mercedes-Benz Stadium	Falcons	2017	About $1.5 billion
5=	AT&T Stadium	Cowboys	2009	About $1.3 billion
5=	Levi’s Stadium	49ers	2014	About $1.3 billion
7	U.S. Bank Stadium	Vikings	2016	$1.1 billion
8	Lucas Oil Stadium	Colts	2008	About $720 million
9	Lincoln Financial Field	Eagles	2003	About $512 million
10	State Farm Stadium	Cardinals	2006	About $455 million

These are approximate project figures, not audited apples-to-apples accounts. Land, roads, parking, financing costs and adjacent development may sit inside one published number and outside another. The ranking is most dependable at the top, where the gaps are large.

1. SoFi Stadium: about $5.5 billion

SoFi Stadium opened in Inglewood in 2020 as the shared home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. The venue’s commonly reported cost ranges from about $5 billion to $5.5 billion depending on the date and scope of the estimate.

It is not a conventional roofed building. The stadium bowl sits below ground because of airport height restrictions, while a huge freestanding ETFE canopy spans the bowl, a plaza and an indoor performance venue. A double-sided 360-degree video board hangs above the field.

The wider Hollywood Park site contains offices, homes, retail, a hotel and public space. Some figures discussed for the development exceed the stadium number, which is why a source that says $5 billion and one that says $5.5 billion may both be describing defensible but different boundaries. The current NFL capacity table records SoFi’s standard 70,240 seats.

2. Allegiant Stadium: $1.97 billion

The Raiders’ own completion announcement put Allegiant Stadium at $1.97 billion. The 1.8-million-square-foot enclosed venue opened in 2020 near the Las Vegas Strip.

Its signature engineering includes a lightweight translucent roof, operable walls facing the Strip and a natural-grass field tray that rolls outside for sunlight. UNLV plays on an artificial surface underneath when the NFL field is outside.

The project received $750 million in public financing backed by a hotel-room tax, then a record public contribution for a US stadium. The balance came through the Raiders, NFL financing, seat licenses and bank debt.

3. MetLife Stadium: about $1.6 billion

MetLife Stadium opened in East Rutherford in 2010 at roughly $1.6 billion, making it the country’s most expensive stadium at the time. The Giants and Jets privately financed the building through their joint stadium company, while public bodies remained involved in land, transport and surrounding infrastructure.

Sharing changes the economic comparison. MetLife serves two full NFL schedules, as does SoFi, while most expensive venues host one team. Its 82,500 seats also make it the largest NFL stadium by standard capacity.

4. Mercedes-Benz Stadium: about $1.5 billion

Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened in 2017 with a final price generally reported near $1.5 billion. Its eight-panel retractable roof was designed to open like a camera aperture, and the oval video halo avoids the central hanging board used in many domes.

Public financing came through Atlanta’s hotel-motel tax, with Falcons owner Arthur Blank covering overruns. The stadium replaced the Georgia Dome on an adjacent site and was built for both the Falcons and Atlanta United.

5. AT&T Stadium: about $1.3 billion

AT&T Stadium cost roughly $1.3 billion when it opened in Arlington in 2009. The Cowboys supplied most of the project financing, while the city contributed a sales-tax package capped at $325 million.

The building’s retractable roof, enormous center-hung screens and expandable standing-room decks made it a template for the event-first NFL stadium. It lists about 80,000 seats but can exceed 100,000 for selected events, an important distinction in our largest US stadiums comparison.

6. Levi’s Stadium: about $1.3 billion

Levi’s Stadium opened in Santa Clara in 2014 at approximately $1.3 billion. It was financed through the Santa Clara Stadium Authority, team-linked revenue, seat licenses, naming rights and commercial borrowing rather than a simple owner-versus-taxpayer split.

The open-air design looks less elaborate than a modern dome, but Silicon Valley construction costs, premium space and its technology system drove the price. Major later renovations for Super Bowl LX and the 2026 World Cup are separate from the original build figure.

7. U.S. Bank Stadium: $1.1 billion

The Vikings reported a $1.1 billion build cost when U.S. Bank Stadium opened in Minneapolis in 2016. Its fixed roof uses a large expanse of transparent ETFE, giving the interior daylight without the weight and mechanical complexity of a retractable roof.

The team said it committed $607 million, or 54 percent of capital cost, with the state and city providing the remainder under the original package and related additions. The angular enclosed building replaced the Metrodome on the same downtown site.

8-10. Lucas Oil, Lincoln Financial and State Farm

Three pre-2010 projects round out the nominal top ten:

• Lucas Oil Stadium opened in Indianapolis in 2008 at about $720 million, with a retractable roof and movable end-zone window.
• Lincoln Financial Field opened in Philadelphia in 2003 at about $512 million. Later renovation programs do not reset its original construction cost.
• State Farm Stadium opened in Glendale in 2006 at about $455 million. Its entire natural-grass field rolls outdoors, while the roof closes over the event floor.

Inflation makes these numbers look deceptively small beside a 2020 build. That is why the table answers “which project had the highest reported price at the time,” not “which imposed the greatest equivalent economic cost in 2026.”

Nominal cost versus inflation-adjusted cost

An inflation-adjusted ranking converts every project into the same year’s purchasing power. It is useful, but only when applied to every stadium with the same index and base date.

Front Office Sports, for example, has put SoFi around $6.75 billion and Allegiant around $2.33 billion in adjusted dollars. MetLife moves closer to Allegiant because its $1.6 billion was spent ten years earlier. The exact values keep changing with the chosen inflation month, so this page does not place those moving figures in its primary table.

Method	Best for	Limitation
Original nominal cost	What the project was reported to cost	Undervalues older construction in today’s money
Inflation-adjusted cost	Comparing purchasing power across years	Changes with index and base date
Cost per seat	Comparing capital intensity	Roofs, mixed-use areas and premium space distort it
Public contribution	Comparing taxpayer exposure	Definitions of infrastructure and tax breaks vary

Future NFL stadiums that may enter the ranking

Several confirmed projects are expensive enough to disrupt the list, but estimates are not final costs and unfinished buildings are not active stadiums.

Team / project	Current reported estimate	Target
Kansas City Chiefs new Kansas stadium	About $3 billion	2031
Cleveland Browns new Huntington Bank Field	About $2.6 billion	2029
Tennessee Titans New Nissan Stadium	About $2.1 billion	2027

Jacksonville’s “Stadium of the Future” is a reconstruction rather than a separate ground-up stadium. Washington’s and Chicago’s projects also remain capable of changing scope and price. The live status and opening dates belong in our new NFL stadium tracker.

SoFi’s lead is safe unless a future project’s completed stadium cost moves far beyond today’s estimates. Compare it with Wembley, Tottenham and Singapore in our world’s most expensive stadiums ranking. For the buildings’ ages rather than their budgets, see the oldest NFL stadiums ranking and the wider stadiums hub.