Three-quarters of the seats inside Lincoln Financial Field — er, Philadelphia Stadium — felt the blast of a late-afternoon sun before France and Paraguay kicked off their round of 16 showdown Saturday, the sixth and final World Cup game in the city.
Those weren’t rally towels swinging; they were the giveaway fans, and even those seated on the shaded west side of the stadium used them to try to cool off. Some in the sun left them unraveled and used them as a shade.
Philadelphia set a record Saturday, reaching 101 degrees or higher for the third consecutive day, according to the National Weather Service. The real-feel temperature on the field at kickoff was hotter than the 98 degrees FOX displayed on its television broadcast.
The city shone during its three weeks in the world spotlight. Fans have packed the fan festival. The stadium has been full. But the games didn’t come and go without the weather being part of the story.
France’s first trip to Philadelphia, a June 22 group stage game vs. Iraq, featured a lengthy delay at halftime due to lightning from a storm that produced heavy downpours. The scheduled 15-minute break lasted more than two hours. Saturday’s game was played during a record-setting heat wave and kicked off with the threat of severe thunderstorms looming later Saturday night.
The World Cup won’t return to the U.S. until at least 2038. If Philadelphia is among the host cities, will the next version of Philadelphia Stadium have a roof?
‘I was a purist, but…’
Mount Laurel’s Graig Weidinger, who was tailgating with a group of friends outside the stadium Saturday, knows it’s probably inevitable that the home of the Eagles one day will have the ability to shield the playing field from weather. The team’s lease expires in 2032, and Jeffrey Lurie said earlier this year that the organization is going through “exploratory research” on the idea of a new or renovated stadium.
Many new stadiums and renovation projects in the NFL have included retractable roofs or domes. There are currently 10 NFL stadiums with roofs, and four more are on the way. The Eagles still are at least a year away from coming close to finalizing plans for their future, but data points like the weather during this World Cup could factor into decisions.
Weidinger said he previously was against the idea of the Eagles playing under a roof. He lamented a future where LeSean McCoy doesn’t dash through the snow for 217 yards in a snowy game vs. Detroit in 2013. Or a future where Saquon Barkley isn’t running through a snow globe-like scene pushing the Eagles to the NFC championship game two seasons ago.
“It gives you the memories,” Weidinger said. “You’re not going to have that.”
It is not just the cold that has recently impacted Eagles games. The 2025 season opener was delayed for more than an hour in the third quarter due to a thunderstorm.
“At first I was a purist, but now I’m giving in to the idea,” Weidinger said. “Now that the weather is so extreme each season.”
There will be a faction of fans who strongly resist a roof. Football, they will say, is meant to be played outside. But the current stadium isn’t just a football stadium, and Lurie may have aspirations to make the future one capable of hosting more marquee events.
“For the city, with what they can do, you see the college playoffs going places, the Super Bowl,” Weidinger said. “If you’ve got a roof you can do it all.”
‘The best of both worlds’
By halftime, most of the field and more than half the seats inside the stadium were protected from the sun with shade. The real feel in the city was still 100 degrees when Kylian Mbappé scored his seventh goal of the tournament — and third in Philadelphia — on a 70th-minute penalty kick that gave France its eventual 1-0 win and a ticket to the quarterfinals.
This is the World Cup, and the announced sellout crowd of 68,324 paid a lot of money for tickets, so most of the seats in the sunny east side of the stadium were full. But there were empty seats visible on that side of the field, their owners likely watching from a shadier, cooler spot.
The fan experience, Lurie said in March at the annual league meeting, will be a priority for any future stadium or renovation.
“We’re so focused on fan amenities,” Lurie said. “To me, that’s the No. 1 thing. Just as a boy growing up, you want to have as best a fan experience. The rest is architecture, design, and where it ends up.”
The fan experience was on the minds of Kurt and Trish Neff as they drove to the stadium Saturday from Boothwyn.
Did they find themselves wishing they were driving to a stadium that was air-conditioned?
“Today, right now? Absolutely, yes,” Kurt said.
In that vein, Kurt said he “would be more likely to come to a game sitting in some warmth during the winter for a football game. Sometimes you’re thinking about selling your tickets in January or the end of December.”
Trish, a soccer coach, wanted to play devil’s advocate.
“The weather is part of a coach’s strategy for the game,” she said. “Whether it’s cold or hot, you might change your game plan depending on it. But for the fans, temperature control would be better.”
Perhaps stadium discussions can be like a healthy marriage. There’s always a chance for compromise.
How about a retractable roof?
“It’s the best of both worlds,” Kurt said.
