"Getting rid of the big video backdrop – willfully throwing away the most powerful visual tool you have – is brave and dangerous, but it occurred to me that with this band, perhaps a more powerful backdrop would be a stadium full of people. U2 have spent 20 years playing indoor venues using this ‘in-the-round-at-one-end’ configuration, so the challenge was to see how we might be able to do it outdoors, with no building roof. Such structures exist of course, but they always end up looking rather apologetic, like a bandstand, rather than having any real power or aesthetic. Also, there's the issue of the truss legs and sightlines and so on. The breakthrough for me was the moment of reverse logic when I realized that instead of trying to make this structure as small and discreet and possible, what if it was so big that it became part of the stadium? What if the structure was completely disconnected from the performing area so that the legs were so far from the stage they wouldn't be in the way?"
—Willie Williams, on dreaming up U2’s four-legged stadium structure, from “PLSN Interview,” June 2009
