With the sporting and betting bonanza that is the Super Bowl just days away, oddmakers are taking bets on a bizarre array of props.
San Francisco was a 2.5-point favourite to defeat Kansas City in Super Bowl 58, set for Las Vegas’s $1.9-billion Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, Feb. 11.
What colour of lipstick will Kansas City fan Taylor Swift choose for the game? Red, her signature, is favoured, followed by “any other colour.”
Here is one bet that has not yet been posted: given the severe heat and sun of the Mohave Desert, how many types of paint did PPG have to deliver as a partner supplier of the stadium owners the Las Vegas Raiders?
If an over-under emerges of five-and-a-half, take the over.
PPG played a central role in the look of the new stadium, says the firm’s national architectural specification manager Gary Edgar.
Allegiant Stadium, with its domed roof and dual playing surfaces, one of which is on rollers, was completed in 2020. Raiders owner Mark Davis hired Manica Architecture as the designer, and PPG was tasked with custom-formulating a coatings system in Black Gold and Silver Fox colours to match the Raider’s iconic uniforms.
“It starts at the colour,” said Edgar. “They actually sent us helmets to say, ‘this is the colour to match.’
“We had to do several matches to get something that the owner really liked…And you think it’s pretty standard, right? It’s black and silver. I mean we have hundreds, thousands of silvers and blacks.”
Product was supplied from three PPG plants in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arkansas. The gleaming curtainwall required a paint that would not fade in the harsh sunlight, so PPG used its Duranar XL paint in four coatings on the exterior steel to enable the firm to offer a long-term warranty.
“We give them a 30-year warranty in the desert,” said Edgar. “That black colour, if you had bought a new black car, put it outside, even in Toronto, in 30 years it’s not going to look black, much less Las Vegas.”
Black paint on steel in the desert can reach unimaginable temperatures so the Duranar has reflective pigments to keep the surface temperature manageable.
“I’ve seen temperatures of 180 F in Florida by 4 o’clock. So I could imagine surface temperatures in Vegas,” said Edgar, noting painting shifts are often scheduled for overnight so that surfaces have cooled.
Among other products used at the stadium, a three-component zinc-rich epoxy primer branded as Amercoat 68 HS provides corrosion protection and the ability to be top-coated quickly; a finish coat, PPG PSX, is noted for strong adhesion and corrosion and chemical resistance; and Pitt-glaze WB1 acrylic epoxy coatings maximize protection in high-traffic areas.
Some applications were done in-shop and others onsite. During the onsite painting process, PPG had representation available to address different situations.
“‘Hey, can we paint this? Does this look OK?’ Just making sure everything was moving smoothly,” said Edgar.
When the opening kickoff takes place on Sunday night, Edgar and his team will be watching the game but also checking out their handiwork.
“Absolutely. I mean, we’re certainly proud of it. It’s exciting.
“I was just in that stadium, probably six months ago, and it looks like it just opened… it’s beautiful.”
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