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Sports

NRG Stadium Prepares For Super Bowl

The NFL has worked for weeks to prepare the venue for the big game in Houston.

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  • NRG Stadium will host Super Bowl LI on Feb. 5. (Photo Credit: Florian Martin)
    NRG Stadium will host Super Bowl LI on Feb. 5. (Photo Credit: Florian Martin)
  • The field for the Super Bowl is the same the Texans played on this season, just some of the painting will be different.
    The field for the Super Bowl is the same the Texans played on this season, just some of the painting will be different.
  • Crews are painting the New England Patriots logo on the field at NRG Stadium.
    Crews are painting the New England Patriots logo on the field at NRG Stadium.
  • The stadium is ready for fans for the 51st Superbowl.
    The stadium is ready for fans for the 51st Superbowl.

Less than two weeks before the big game, NRG Stadium is empty but for a few workers who are busy turning the Houston Texans field into a Super Bowl field.

NFL field director Ed Mangan has been here since early this month, getting NRG Stadium and the training fields at Rice and the University of Houston ready.

"We took out the end zones and the 50 (yard line)," he said, "because obviously they're inlaid for the Texans and we put blank pieces in. And you can see, then we start laying out the Super Bowl teams."

The field is not the only thing that needs to be changed.

"There's a lot more of everything that's here for the Super Bowl," Eric Finkelstein, NFL director of events, said. "You'll have a lot more media, so we have to find places to accommodate them both in the building and in other places around it. There's more parties and other things that are happening around the site that we have to deal with and take care of."

He said hundreds of people are putting in many hours to get the stadium ready for the big game.

"The amount of prep and time it takes to get the Super Bowl ready in general is something that – it takes years," Finkelstein said. "It's not something that happens overnight or when we show up here."

They now have 11 days to get it all done.