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Chargers 'Iconic' New Home Starting to Take Shape

Coaches and scouts enjoyed an up-close look at the construction site of the new SoFi Stadium.

It's Wednesday morning and Anthony Lynn is at the 50-yard line.

He only has one word to describe what he's seeing.

"Wow!"

While the players had a day off, the entire coaching staff and football ops department spent the morning touring construction for the new Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park.

Being on the very field that in two years will officially open as the future home of the Bolts was an awe-inspiring moment for the head coach.

As construction whirled around him, words could barely describe what it was like to see a project of this magnitude up close.

"You see pictures and photos, but to actually be on the site ground level at the 50-yard line just looking at the stadium; it's going to be an awesome facility," Lynn said. "Iconic. Never seen it before, and don't know if I'll ever see anything like it again."

The head coach also allowed himself a moment to picture what game day will look like.

"I absolutely visualized the turf on the field and the fans in stadium. I love the structure of how it goes up and over the field. It's going to be a loud stadium."

Lynn also flashed back to last year's Thanksgiving game in Dallas.

The fact that the future home of the Bolts is bigger than AT&T Stadium puts the massive scope of the structure into perspective.

"It's crazy," he said. "You didn't think anything would get bigger than that, but this raises the bar. This is the stadium that everyone is going to be talking about. It's one everyone is going to want to go to, to watch a football game."

Lynn's feelings sum up those from his fellow coaches and members of the team's front office.

"It's just great to have all of our football people out here to see what our future is going to be like," said General Manager Tom Telesco. "Just to come out and see what the future home is going to be like, and seeing what the sheer volume of this project is, it's pretty amazing. I've seen the model. I've seen pictures. But until you're actually here to see the amount of people, and the amount of work that goes on almost 24/7; it's pretty amazing."

Those touring the stadium site have over 200-combined years of NFL experience.

To a man, they've never seen anything close to the experience the future home of the Chargers will boast.

"This is amazing," said Defensive Coordinator Gus Bradley. "When they told us we were coming on this tour, we didn't really know what to expect. Just how much area the whole facility encompasses, it's impressive. As a coach, you want to get a feel for what it's like on the field level. Without a doubt I was picturing myself down there before a game and down on the sideline watching it. Really how the stadium sits. A lot of times you hear in a stadium that there's not a bad seat, but when you're standing down there, you really see how there's not a bad seat in the stadium."

"We've been in a lot of stadiums, and seeing the construction and what's going into it, it's an impressive facility," added Offensive Coordinator Ken Whisenhunt. "When you see the model of it and everything that's involved, you can get a perspective of it. But when you actually come to the site, and you see the amount of work, effort and planning that goes into it to have everything come together to create such a fantastic venture, it's pretty incredible. It's awesome."

The coaches and scouts were also blown away to learn all that is going into the project.

Not only is work being done around the clock, but almost 4,000 people are involved in the Los Angeles Stadium and Entertainment District product each day. That includes approximately 1,500 a day on the actual construction.

"It's great to see the excitement from the staff," said President of Football Operations John Spanos. "It's something we've been wanting to do for a while, and we were able to do that today. It's such an impressive project to see firsthand. You can read about it and see pictures online, but being here gives you a different perspective. You really get to see firsthand just how impressive it is."

While Spanos has made several visits to the site over the past year, this marked the first chance he's had to be down on field level.

"You can picture how it's going to be, and visualize the stadium and bowl when there is a game going on," he said. "Really, what stood out to me was that while it's obviously going to be a larger stadium site, it was very intimate. The seats are very close to the field, which was cool to see."

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