Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium: What the February 2027 Drone TFR Means for Los Angeles Productions

Super Bowl LXI will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Sunday, February 14, 2027. The last time the game came to Los Angeles, in February 2022, the FAA turned the whole basin into a no drone zone for the afternoon, and productions that had aerial days on the calendar found out the hard way that a Temporary Flight Restriction does not care about a call sheet. The 2027 restriction has not been published yet. The shape of it is predictable from 2022, and the time to plan around it is now, while the fall production calendar is still being built.

What happened in 2022

For Super Bowl LVI the FAA designated the Los Angeles area a no drone zone and published a Temporary Flight Restriction with two rings. The inner ring closed one nautical mile around SoFi Stadium up to 3,000 feet from 10 a.m. on game day. The outer ring closed 30 nautical miles around the stadium up to 18,000 feet from 2:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Pacific time. The FAA’s stated consequences for a drone inside either ring were confiscation of the aircraft, civil penalties that can exceed $30,000, and possible criminal prosecution.

Thirty nautical miles is about 34 statute miles. Centered on Inglewood, that circle reaches past Malibu to the west, across the San Fernando Valley to the north, through Long Beach and the harbor to the south, and into Anaheim to the east. For practical purposes it was the entire Los Angeles production market, closed to drones for six hours on a Sunday.

Expect the same shape in 2027. The FAA published the 2022 restriction roughly ten days before the game, and until the 2027 notice appears on the FAA’s TFR list the only safe assumption is that Sunday, February 14, 2027 has no drone work in it anywhere in the basin from early afternoon until well after the final whistle.

SoFi is a hard location on any day

The Super Bowl is the extreme case, but SoFi Stadium is a demanding airspace problem every day of the year, and productions that want the building in an aerial should know that before the scout.

It sits inside LAX Class B airspace. The stadium is a few miles east of the airport, under the arrival path, in a part of the Los Angeles airspace map where the LAANC grid ceilings are low or zero. A routine Part 107 flight at SoFi is not an app approval; it is often a further coordination request with lead time, and some altitudes are simply not available. Our guide to restricted Los Angeles airspace covers how the airport airspace around the basin works.

Every home game closes three nautical miles. Under the standing stadium NOTAM, any Rams or Chargers home game puts a Temporary Flight Restriction over a three nautical mile radius up to 3,000 feet, from one hour before kickoff to one hour after the game ends. That circle covers most of Inglewood and reaches into neighboring cities. The TFR guide explains how we schedule around it; the short version is that the team calendars are part of the airspace prep for any shoot within three miles of the stadium.

The venue controls its own property. Hollywood Park is private ground. Launching from it, landing on it, or flying over it needs the venue’s permission on top of the FAA’s, and Inglewood issues its own film permits separately from the City of Los Angeles.

None of that makes SoFi unshootable. It makes it a location that needs weeks of lead time instead of days, and a fall date rather than a February one.

Who gets inside a Super Bowl TFR

The honest answer for most productions is nobody. Access inside a stadium TFR is a federal security waiver, applied for through the FAA’s airspace waiver site and vetted by the Transportation Security Administration, and it stands on the venue’s written consent. We have been through that process: we obtained the clearance to fly Dodger Stadium during the 2025 Wild Card Series on the strength of the Dodgers’ consent letter. For a regular season game at SoFi the same path exists for an operation the venue wants, with the Rams or the Chargers in the role the Dodgers played.

The Super Bowl is different in degree. Game-day airspace is managed by federal security agencies alongside the league, and the aerial assets inside the ring belong to the broadcast rights holder and to law enforcement. A brand shoot, a documentary crew, or a commercial that wants a drone over the stadium on February 14 should plan on not getting one. Where a production has a genuine, league-sanctioned reason to fly, the request goes through the venue and the league first, and it should start in the fall, not in January.

The Los Angeles stadium calendar from now to February

A producer scheduling aerial days in Los Angeles between now and the Super Bowl is scheduling around a stack of stadium restrictions, not just one. The ones that matter:

• October. The Dodgers’ postseason, if they are in it, puts a three nautical mile circle over Echo Park, Chinatown, and part of downtown on every home date, from an hour before first pitch to an hour after the last out.
• September through early January. Rams and Chargers home games at SoFi, most Sundays and some Thursdays and Mondays, each with the three mile circle over Inglewood.
• Saturdays through November. USC at the Coliseum and UCLA at the Rose Bowl, each a Division I football game under the same stadium rule.
• January 1, 2027. The Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, plus the Rose Parade that morning, which can carry its own special event restriction.
• January. NFL playoff games at SoFi if either Los Angeles team hosts, with the dates known only a week or so in advance.
• February 14, 2027. Super Bowl LXI, with the basin-wide restriction described above, and the possibility of restrictions over Super Bowl week fan events in the days before. In 2022 those events were downtown and in Inglewood; expect the 2027 notice to say where.

Every one of these is a scheduling problem rather than a cancellation if the production knows about it before the day is locked. The aerial unit should be the department raising them; on our shoots that is part of the plan of activities that goes out before the call sheet.

How to plan it

Shoot SoFi and Inglewood in the fall. If a campaign tied to the game wants the stadium from the air, the establishing shots get flown on a non-game weekday in October or November, with the airspace coordination and the venue’s permission in hand. Shooting it in February is shooting it inside the one nautical mile inner ring, which closes at 10 a.m. on game day and may close earlier in the week.

Keep Super Bowl Sunday clear across the whole basin. Not just near the stadium. A 30 nautical mile circle means a Malibu beach spot, a downtown rooftop, a Long Beach harbor shot, and a Valley backlot are all closed from early afternoon. Move the aerial day to Saturday, or to Monday, or to a location outside the circle such as Ventura County or the high desert.

Check the FAA list three times. When the date is set, 72 hours out, and the morning of. The Super Bowl notice will publish in early February, and any Super Bowl week event restrictions will publish alongside it or shortly after.

Build the stadium calendars into the location scout. For any shoot within three nautical miles of SoFi, the Coliseum, the Rose Bowl, or Dodger Stadium, pull the home schedule before the date is locked. One hour after the event ends, the airspace reopens, so an evening aerial block after a day game is often fine.

Ask the aerial unit who owns this. If the answer is the production office, find another aerial unit. Monitoring restrictions is part of every drone videography in Los Angeles booking we take, whether it is a one-day insert for commercial drone production or a season of drone cinematography for film and TV. For the broadcast side of event work, where the drone is inside the perimeter by design, the live event drone coverage page covers how those days are built.

FAQ

Can I fly a drone near SoFi Stadium during the Super Bowl?

No. In 2022 the FAA closed 30 nautical miles around the stadium to drones on game day, and the inner mile from 10 a.m. Expect the same in 2027, with confiscation and civil penalties for violations.

How far does the Super Bowl drone ban reach?

The 2022 restriction was a 30 nautical mile radius, about 34 statute miles, up to 18,000 feet. From Inglewood that reaches Malibu, the San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, and Anaheim.

Can a production get permission to fly inside the Super Bowl TFR?

Access is a federal security waiver that depends on the venue’s and the league’s consent, and on game day the aircraft inside the ring belong to the broadcast rights holder and law enforcement. Productions should plan on not getting one.

Can you fly a drone at SoFi Stadium on a normal day?

With lead time, yes. The stadium sits inside LAX Class B airspace under the approach path, so the authorization is a coordination request rather than an app approval, the venue has to consent, and the date has to avoid Rams and Chargers home games.

When will the FAA publish the 2027 Super Bowl TFR?

The 2022 notice came roughly ten days before the game. Watch the FAA’s TFR list from early February 2027, and treat the whole of Sunday, February 14 as closed until it says otherwise.

For the rest of the approval stack on a Los Angeles shoot, see our Los Angeles drone filming permit guide.

Planning a campaign or a shoot around the Super Bowl in Los Angeles? Book a consultation and we will run your dates and locations against the stadium calendars and the airspace, and tell you which aerials need to be flown in the fall. Our aerial cinematography work across the Los Angeles market is built around exactly this kind of calendar.