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Take a look inside an NFL stadium in the chaotic hours leading up to game day

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  • A few times each year, NFL stadiums like Mercedes-Benz Stadium have events on consecutive nights.
  • Crews have to strip and repaint the field, clean up confetti, and make food for thousands of people.
  • Take a look at how crews prepare Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for game day in just 18 hours.

A few times each year, NFL stadiums pull off a logistical feat that most fans never see.

When venues like Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the Falcons, host major events on consecutive nights, crews race against the clock to transform the space in less than a day — repainting the field, clearing confetti, cleaning the stands, and prepping food for tens of thousands of people.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how Mercedes-Benz Stadium gets ready for kickoff in just 18 hours.

As soon as the final whistle blows, the clock starts ticking to reset Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for its next event.

Staff have to move stages and prepare the field for the next game.

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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.

Cleanup starts with collecting all of the confetti dropped onto the field during the last game.


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Crews cleaned up millions of pieces of confetti off the field.

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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.

Beyond raking, crews use vehicles fitted with large nets to collect every piece of confetti.


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A truck with a net used to collect confetti.

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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.

Groundskeepers deploy a P-Rex machine to scrub paint from the field’s logos and end zones.


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A P-Rex machine helped scrub the field of logos from the previous game.

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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.

While the field is being scrubbed, teams of clean-up workers fan out across the stadium’s 2 million square feet.


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Crews fanned out across the stadium to clean up waste.

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

What fans leave behind adds up fast.


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Trash left behind in the seating bowl.

Jeffrey Moustache/Joseph Funk/Business Insider

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.

Pressure-washing crews move in right behind them to clear away spilled drinks, dirt, and other residue.


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Pressure washers were used to clean the seating bowl after waste was collected.

Jeffrey Moustache/Joseph Funk/Business Insider

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.

Trash flows nonstop into the stadium’s Resource Recovery Room, where workers sort bags of trash by hand.


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The Resource Recovery Room in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

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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.

Then, repainting begins, with crews tackling the center logo and the end zones first.


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Workers painted the center logo and the end zones first.

Jeffrey Moustache/Joseph Funk/Business Insider

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.

Crews use a large stencil to speed up the painting process.


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A large stencil was used to paint the Falcons logo.

Jeffrey Moustache/Joseph Funk/Business Insider

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.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s food operation is more complex than just hamburgers and chicken tenders.


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Kitchen staff must handle food production for concessions, suites, and more.

Jeffrey Moustache/Joseph Funk/Business Insider

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.

Kitchen staff have just a few hours of rest after a big game before they’re back preparing food for the next night.


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Cooks had just a few hours of rest before prepping for the next night.

Jeffrey Moustache/Joseph Funk/Business Insider

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

Kitchen staff rely on production boards to keep everything organized.


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Production boards with the team and menus for the following event.

Jeffrey Moustache/Joseph Funk/Business Insider

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.”

By 10 a.m., concessions are up and running. Not long after, barbecue platters are delivered to the private suites.


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Workers delivered barbecue platters to private suites before the gates open to fans at 11 a.m.

Jeffrey Moustache/Joseph Funk/Business Insider

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.

Eighteen hours after the last crowd left, the stadium is once again full of screaming fans.


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The entire process of resetting the stadium took 18 hours to complete.

Jeffrey Moustache/Joseph Funk/Business Insider

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.


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Minnesota Timberwolves postpone game amid ICE protests

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  • The Warriors and Timberwolves were set to play at Target Center in Minneapolis on Saturday.
  • The NBA said the game was postponed to prioritize safety.
  • ICE agents fatally shot a man on Saturday amid ongoing clashes with Minneapolis residents.

The Saturday game between the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves was postponed in a rare move by the National Basketball Association.

The Timberwolves were set to play the California team at Target Center in Minneapolis, a venue that has become a flash point for protests against the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation tactics.

Hours before the scheduled game time, a 37-year-old Minneapolis man was fatally shot by federal agents, officials said in a joint press conference with the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection agencies.

The NBA did not reference the shooting in its statement but said “the decision was made to prioritize the safety and security of the Minneapolis community.”

The game was rescheduled to Sunday, 5:30 p.m. local time.

A decision to postpone an NBA game amid civil unrest is rare.

The last time the organization postponed a game during civil unrest was in 2020 after multiple teams, including the Milwaukee Bucks, boycotted games in response to the fatal shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Spokespeople for the Timberwolves, Warriors, and NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.




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Streaming big events like an NFL game used to be question mark. Amazon just got more than 31 million people to stream the Bears-Packers.

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On Saturday, the Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers in an NFL playoff game that had everything: a bitter rivalry, an old-school outdoors atmosphere, and a historic comeback (or choke-job, depending on your POV).

It also happened to be a (mostly) streaming-only game. Did you notice? Or care?

I didn’t. Except for about 30 seconds, when I was trying to find out what network was showing the game, and it took me a beat to realize it was on Amazon’s Prime Video. Then I booted up my app and watched the game without any issue. Just like any other NFL game.

In 2026, “Guy doesn’t have a problem watching the Bears/Packers” is a true dog-bites-man story. But that’s why I’m writing about it here: Not very long ago, the idea of streaming a super-high-profile NFL game — and requiring NFL fans to subscribe to a streaming service in order to watch it — would have been a very big deal.

Now it’s a yawner: I was one of 31.6 million people who watched the game, the vast majority of whom streamed it (fans in local markets could use broadcast TV). That’s a streaming record for an NFL game, and it’s more than some other games got last weekend on conventional TV.

And that tells you just how far sports and streaming have come.

Flash back to 2013, for instance, and the idea of whether the “internet” — a catch-all term that included everything needed to get streaming video onto your screen, from web servers to fiber-optic lines to the router in your house — could support a big NFL game watched by many millions of people was an open question. “Why Web TV Skeptic Mark Cuban Thinks Google Can Make the NFL Work on the Web,” was an ungainly headline I tapped out at the time.

Back then, the NFL and other sports giants were routinely streaming big events like the Super Bowl and World Cup — but only as a sort of secondary outlet for weirdos who didn’t have traditional TV. And anyone who did stream sports had to expect to run into problems, like ESPN did when it streamed a World Cup game in 2014.

A year later, the NFL put on a streaming-only game for the first time — but made sure it was a relatively niche one, and made sure that people knew it was an experiment.

Cut to today, and streaming is just a way we watch some football games now. Amazon pays a gazillion dollars a year to show one game a week during the regular season; Netflix has paid up to show a couple games on Christmas Day. A new deal the NFL struck with Disney last year will give the league the opportunity to sell even more games to digital players.

And two years ago, the league passed another new threshold by moving one of its most valuable assets — a playoff game — to Comcast’s Peacock streamer, where it was only available to paid subscribers. That one generated a ton of complaints from people who said they didn’t want to pay another service to watch an NFL game — along with millions of sign-ups for Peacock, which showed they would.

The NFL is not ditching TV for streaming anytime soon. For many people, watching NFL games is the main reason to watch TV, and that gives the league a ton of leverage to extract ever-increasing fees from the likes of NBC and CBS. So they will almost certainly keep the majority of their games on old-time TV for the foreseeable future. But they’re going to sell them to streaming platforms too — because they’ll pay up to get them, and you’ll pay, too.




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How to Get NBA All-Star Game 2026 tickets: Dates, locations, and prices

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Ask any professional basketball fan, and they likely will tell you their favorite all-star players across the sport. These players are often part of an annual event featuring a series of All-Star games, where 24 of the top players compete over the course of a long weekend. This year’s games will feature a new format: one team composed of American players and another featuring international players. If you’re hoping to catch the games live, I’ve broken down how to get NBA All-Star games tickets below.

The players chosen to take part in these games are chosen by vote. Half of that vote is done by the fans, providing a huge sense of community and encouragement for the fan base to participate in the process, ensuring their favorite players end up in the games. The remaining half of the leftover votes is split between the media and NBA players. The latest round of fan voting results went forward on January 6.

Chosen players participate in multiple bite-sized games, culminating in a tournament leading up to a championship game to conclude the weekend. In addition to these games, there are also special events. The All-Star series of games (including the WNBA All-Star series) features rising stars in the NBA, celebrity All-Stars, and has two special game events dedicated to highlighting communities and skills.

There will be four different main events happening during the NBA All-Star games. Fans of the WNBA will also have the opportunity to see their favorite All-Star players play ball in the summer.

We’re going to tell you about how you can score the cheapest tickets to see fans’ favorite players in basketball. Check out the lineup below and browse tickets anytime on Stubhub and Vivid Seats.

NBA All-Stars’ 2026 game schedule

This year’s NBA All-Star games locations change annually, but are often held in major cities across the United States. This year, things are headed to Los Angeles County at Inglewood’s Intuit Dome. If the name of the venue sounds familiar, it should. It’s where the Clippers usually play.

The WNBA All-Star games, happening later in the year, are being held in Chicago.

How to buy tickets for the 2026 NBA All-Star Games

Fans can purchase tickets to the games on Ticketmaster, as well as on resale sites such as Stubhub and Vivid Seats. Tickets are in high demand for the games, especially the WNBA games in the summer, which have only a small percentage of tickets available, despite being later in the year.

Tickets for the main NBA games on Saturday and Sunday nights aren’t available on Ticketmaster, which is driving up ticket prices on reseller sites.

How much are tickets?

The cheapest tickets for the special All-Star series of games are for the HBCU Classic game. The HBCU Classic is a special game that showcases players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), highlighting their exceptional skills and rich cultural heritage. You can scoop a single ticket for that game for less than fifty bucks. That’s only a little bit more expensive than the cheapest tickets for parking during the Celebrity All-Star Game held earlier in the evening!

Tickets to the main games on Saturday and Sunday nights are expensive. The closer you get to the court (which is revered for being an amazing experience for those who go), the higher the prices.

That said, the Intuit Dome is a great venue for watching a game. I’ve personally gone to a game there in the past. If you’re a basketball fan, these series of games are going to be ones you’ll want to consider investing funds to see. You’ll get an opportunity to see the best players in the league in one of Los Angeles’ best venues for basketball.

Possible All-Star players to be featured in the 2026 All-Star Games

While the games are hosted in California again this year, multiple highly voted players are some of California’s finest. Some of the top-voted players so far include Los Angeles Lakers ballers Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves. Los Angeles Clippers stars James Harden and Kawhi Leonard are also among the highest-voted players for the coming games. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors also ranked highly in fan votes.

Other possible fan favorites from the Western Conference are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs. Eastern conference team players with a lot of current votes include Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers, Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons, and Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

See more: Is StubHub legit? | Best sports streaming services | ESPN prices and plans

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Jennifer Stavros

Freelance Writer

Jennifer Stavros is a writer and researcher based in Los Angeles. Her writing seeks to unpack culture in its varied nuances, from navigating complex health and science topics to helping people discover ways to unwind in the midst of a constantly buzzing world.Her work has made cameos all over the web. Outside Business Insider, you can find her work in Wired, Playboy, Cheddar, CNET, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, The Independent, and so many other places in print or digital formats. Several of her contributions, including those here on Business Insider, have gone viral.She is currently working on multiple books about necropolitics. When she isn’t writing, you can find her exploring geeky things with artistic or historical twists… often with a classic cocktail or a fancy beer in one hand, wearing vintage or other eye-catching fashions and a giant bow on her head. Follow her day-to-day adventures on Bluesky.


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