ready time

← All stadiums

🏈

When to leave for SoFi Stadium.

Enter the kickoff time, adjust the drive, the parking and the tailgate, and see when to leave and when to start getting ready.

The plan in Ready Time

  1. Set the deadline. That's the time you need to be ready.
  2. Add your steps and how long each one really takes.
  3. Ready Time works backward and gives every step a start time.
Kickoff
15 min Final pack & check 11:13 AM
40 min Drive to the stadium 11:28 AM
25 min Park & find your spot 12:08 PM
15 min Walk to the gate 12:33 PM
15 min Gate security 12:48 PM
12 min Walk to your seat 1:03 PM
10 min In your seat for the anthem 1:15 PM
Kickoff 1:25 PM

NFL game day at SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. For a concert here, start from the concert night plan instead: doors and a support act, not gates and kickoff.

Every row is editable. Tap the kickoff or any duration and the plan recomputes backward. The first travel row is your leave-by time.

Travel time to SoFi Stadium

The 40-minute drive is a typical run from Los Angeles without game-day traffic (the optimistic number). In the app, set SoFi Stadium as the destination and Apple Maps fills in the time from where you’re leaving.

Home SoFi Stadium
🚗 40 min
🚗 Drive 🚶 Walk 🚴 Cycle
40 min Drive to the stadium

Then add for game day: thousands aiming at the same exit and lots (real drive to SoFi Stadium). Change the row and every step before it moves.

SoFi Stadium seen from outside, in Inglewood, California.
Photo by Troutfarm27, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized for this page.

Kickoff is later than you think

The time on your ticket is when the ball is kicked. The anthem and coin toss run before that. Aim for ten to fifteen minutes earlier if you want to be in your seat for any of it.

Gate screening usually decides it. Every NFL stadium runs walk-through detectors, and the queue is the gap between arriving and being inside. People who miss the start rarely misjudge the drive; they misjudge the lot walk and the line.

Here is the same day drawn to scale. A maps app can number the drive. The rest is the walk in, the gate queue, and finding your seat. A full tailgate is the version worth looking at.

Front door to your seat: 2hr 12min

  • Before you leave 15 min
  • Getting there 1hr 5min
  • Walk in, queue and seat 52 min

Kickoff windows at SoFi Stadium

Kickoff times are national broadcast windows, the same ones every week. Pick yours and every step before it moves.

Windows are published in Eastern Time. SoFi Stadium is on Pacific time, three hours behind, so an early-window game does not start at one o'clock here:

An early-window game here kicks off at 10:00 AM. Try that with a full tailgate if you want to see how early you actually leave.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Sunday late window sometimes at 4:05 instead of 4:25, and late-season Saturdays run their own times. Type those in on the kickoff row.

Getting to SoFi Stadium

No rail to the stadium itself. Metro K Line to Downtown Inglewood, then a shuttle. Driving means the 405 and surface streets that seize before kickoff.

Shared by two teams: check which home schedule you mean. Enormous site with parking spread across it; walk in from an outer lot is among the longest in the league.

The platform at Downtown Inglewood station on the Metro K Line.
Photo by Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain. Resized for this page.

Gates, the queue, and what you can carry in

About two hours before kickoff

Gates open at most NFL stadiums

That is when you can get in, not when you have to. The official SoFi Stadium site has the real time, which moves for a night game or playoff.

Clear-bag policy at every stadium. Getting it wrong usually means walking back to the car and re-entering the line. Check the stadium's page for current sizes rather than a size you remember.

Tailgating only in the Pink Zone with a pass bought in advance, enforced elsewhere. Only count on a tailgate if you hold that pass. Fixed canopy covers the bowl with open sides; gate to seat is a real leg between levels.

Leave time for packing up the tailgate

A tailgate feels open-ended until it isn't: grill, food, lock the car, walk to the gate with the whole lot. Add one and those steps go in, which means leaving earlier.

Four hours before kickoff

The lots here open

You cannot get into the lot before that.

Gates, lots and bag rules change; the official site is the live source.

Ready Time app icon

Ready Time

You know what you need to do. Ready Time helps you know when to start.

Common questions

How early should I get to SoFi Stadium?

Gates open about two hours before kickoff at most NFL stadiums; that is when the crowd starts arriving, not when you have to. Without a tailgate, being through a gate about an hour before kickoff covers screening, the walk to your section, and a stop on the concourse. Shared by two teams: check which home schedule you mean. Enormous site with parking spread across it; walk in from an outer lot is among the longest in the league.

When should I leave for SoFi Stadium?

Work backward from kickoff: minutes in your seat beforehand, walk to your section, gate screening, walk from the lot, parking, then the drive (40 minutes in the default plan). That puts leave-by at 11:28 AM for a 1:25 PM kickoff. Change the kickoff time and every row moves.

What time is kickoff at SoFi Stadium?

It depends on the national broadcast window. On this stadium's clock: an early Sunday game kicks off at 10:00 AM, the late Sunday window at 1:25 PM, a night game at 5:15 PM. This example uses the late Sunday window. Thanksgiving, Christmas and some late-season Saturdays run their own times; the kickoff row is editable for those.

How long does the security line take?

The plan allows 15 minutes for a normal walk-through queue. It runs longer in the twenty minutes before kickoff. Arriving fifteen minutes off that peak is usually enough.

What time do the gates open at SoFi Stadium?

Two hours before kickoff is the common NFL practice. It moves for a night game, playoff or special event. The official SoFi Stadium site publishes the real time for your game.

How early should I get there to tailgate at SoFi Stadium?

A short tailgate adds about an hour and a half; a full one closer to three. For a 1:25 PM kickoff that already means leaving well before lunch. Watch packing up and the walk to the gate. Those get squeezed when the lot is having a good time.

What can I bring in?

Assume a clear bag or no bag. Check the stadium's own page for current sizes. The timing risk is being turned around at the gate and walking back to the car: the walk twice and a second trip through the queue.

Flying in? The airport pages. Taking Amtrak? The station pages. No stadium listed? The tailgate timeline is the same plan without a particular lot.

Share one leave time with everyone on the trip

Whoever is driving sees the same 11:28 AM leave-by that you do, not just the kickoff time on the ticket.

They tap once, and every step gets its own alert on their phone.

👥 Shared by Rosa
🏈 Game at SoFi Stadium
15 min Final pack & check 11:13 AM
40 min Drive to the stadium 11:28 AM
25 min Park & find your spot 12:08 PM
Kickoff 1:25 PM
🏈 Game at SoFi Stadium
15 min Final pack & check 11:13 AM
40 min Drive to the stadium 11:28 AM
25 min Park & find your spot 12:08 PM

Build it once, then use it every home game

Ready Time keeps the plan and subtracts again when kickoff changes. Put in next week's game and the same steps land on new times, with an alert on each one.

Ready Time 11:13 AM
Final pack & check. Kickoff in 2h 12m
Ready Time 12:33 PM
Walk to the gate. Kickoff in 52m
Ready Time 1:15 PM
In your seat for the anthem. Kickoff in 10m

Alerts when it's time to start

Get a nudge at the right moment, while there's still time to act.

Each step gets its own alert, so you know what's next and how long you have.

★★★★★
“A key part of my planning process. Well worth the investment.”
App Store review
Ready Time app icon

Ready Time

You know what you need to do. Ready Time helps you know when to start.

Other stadiums

More on being ready on time