NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, opened on August 24, 2002, and immediately rewrote the rulebook for multi-purpose stadium design. It was the first NFL facility in the world to feature a retractable roof — a pair of panels splitting at the 50-yard line and retracting over the end zones, capable of opening or closing in approximately seven minutes. The vision behind the design was simple but ambitious: create a facility that felt like an open-air stadium but offered the intimacy and comfort of an indoor arena.

Built at a cost of $352 million, NRG Stadium covers 1.9 million square feet, a footprint large enough to accommodate both NFL football and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, one of the most attended annual events in North America. The rodeo has called the stadium home since 2003, with hydraulic stage systems and livestock housing infrastructure built into the venue’s design.

The stadium has hosted Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 (Patriots 32, Panthers 29) and the legendary Super Bowl LI in 2017, which saw the New England Patriots complete the greatest comeback in championship history, overcoming a 28–3 deficit to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in the first overtime in Super Bowl history. The 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship also took place here.

NRG has become a premier concert venue — Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in 2023 became the first act in the stadium’s history to sell out three shows on a single tour, and Metallica set a new attendance record in June 2025 with over 75,000 fans. The venue will host seven FIFA World Cup 2026 matches under the neutral name “Houston Stadium.”