Rio Tinto ready to soar as concert venue for Eagles

Transforming the Rio Tinto Stadium from a sports venue to a music venue is no small feat.

The stadium needs a stage, which will take out most of the south side of the stadium's seats, and the grass needs to be covered, without killing it.

To prepare for Saturday's Eagles concert, crews have worked since May 4 to make sure concertgoers will enjoy the show, said Trey Fitz-Gerald, the venue's director of media services.

"They (crews) have been working by taking down the seats and setting up the stage," he said during a tour of the stadium earlier this week. "Once the stage is done, there will be a roof that will cover the stage as well."

"The stage measures in at 60 feet by 80 feet," said Hans Niska, the director of facility management. "The roof of the stage is 20 feet longer. So it's 80 feet by 80 feet."

Supporting the roof are six 87-foot-tall iron beams.

"The roof will be raised and lowered onto these supports by a pulley system," Fitz-Gerald said.

While the stage is mostly the stadium's concrete, an additional platform will be added, Fitz-Gerald said. "We will be putting this in and taking this out — we need it for the shows.

"Since the Eagles is our first show, we're going to be learning a lot from it," he said.

The grass on which the Real Salt Lake soccer team plays is a real concern. "The turf is all natural and world-class," Fitz-Gerald said. "So there are regulations that need to be met.

"When we prep the turf for a show, we have to cover it to protect it."

Fitz-Gerald said stadium workers are able to access the turf from under the roots.

"We can shoot oxygen and warm air to the grass roots," he said. "By doing that, we kind of trick it into thinking that it's getting sunlight, even though it's covered."

The poly-based cover is used at other sports stadiums, Niska said. "It is aerated. That way we can water through it. But it keeps people's feet and the chairs off of it."

For the Eagles concert, stadium crews will set up an additional 5,000 chairs on the field, Fitz-Gerald said.

"We can have a total of 27,000 seats if needed," he said. "But we're not having that many for the show. A regular soccer game will have 20,000 seats available."