Those flags that span the entire field before the game must be very heavy and difficult to control, even if made of light weight material. How do they keep the center of the mass from hitting the ground?.
According to this:
1,100 pounds of freedom fabric and $50,000 of red white and blue, the oversized flags typically takes an entire month to make. When presented on the field, around 150 people are needed to hold the thing.
Freedom fabric?! LOL That’s a good one.
1100lbs ÷ 150ppl = ~73lbs per person. That’s a fair amount of weight for the average person to support for the time that display lasts. Are they holding it up with their hands, or do they have some kind of strap or harness to spread the weight to their neck or back?
I’m getting 7.3 pounds per person. Not too bad. For comparison a gallon of water weighs around 8.3 pounds.
Oops, fat finger error.
So, how do they keep it from falling in the middle? Aren’t the people all on the outside?
When I was in the military I held a couple of those flags at halftime. There were people inside, underneath it, holding it up at regular intervals. Along the perimeter, we stretched it tight and then waved it up and down.
This was back in the 80s and 90s. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
I figured there had to be something under there to keep the bulk of the center from dropping to the ground. I was thinking maybe blowers.