As the new NFL season gets underway, two questions will dominate the conversation: Who will win the Super Bowl, and which star players will stay healthy enough to make it there? Healthy indoor air impacts player performance. What casual fans do not realize is that healthy indoor air impacts not only player performance, but also stadium workers and fans.
Healthy Indoor Air Impacts: How Atmos Air Solutions Is Making a Difference in the NFL
Jan 4, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; An view outside the stadium before the game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
The Hidden Threat to NFL Players Isn’t on the Field—It’s in the Air
It’s far too early to predict the Super Bowl winner, but two teams—the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos—are taking a proactive approach to player health. Both have opened new, state-of-the-art training facilities equipped with high-tech air purification and monitoring systems designed to create healthier indoor environments for players, coaches, and staff.
The Patriots and Broncos have installed AtmosAir Solutions’ proprietary Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) bipolar ionization technology within their HVAC systems, along with 24/7 real-time indoor air-quality monitoring. The technology is installed throughout key areas, including locker rooms, training and weight rooms. The goal: to keep players healthy and off the injured list.
AtmosAir Solutions technology helps protect NFL players, coaches, and staff by continuously purifying and monitoring the air in team facilities, helping reduce airborne germs, viruses, and other contaminants that can affect player health and performance and keep them off the field.
When installed throughout a stadium, it provides a healthier indoor environment for fans in suites, restaurants, clubs, etc.
Healthy Indoor Air Impacts: How Does It Work?
DBD BPI technology, added to a sports venue’s HVAC system, emits ions into the air that seek, attack and deter airborne contaminants like germs and viruses that cause illness, while the 24/7 real-time monitoring sensors measure the air quality throughout stadiums and training facilities, ensuring players are breathing clean air.
The same technology is also being used in the training facilities of the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers and in US Bank Stadium, home to the Minnesota Vikings, and SoFi Stadium, home to the Los Angeles Rams and LA Chargers.
The Patriots’ 160,000-square-foot New Balance Athletics Center spans three floors and includes an expanded locker room, a 15,000-square-foot weight room, a virtual-reality room for training and football preparation, a 3,700-square-foot hydrotherapy and recovery center and football administration offices. The main floor is dedicated to training, rehabilitation and recovery, while the top floor features film-study and meeting spaces.
The Broncos’ new training facility features an expanded locker room, state-of-the-art weight room, performance and training areas, medical, rehabilitation and recovery facilities, meeting rooms and indoor practice spaces.
The Braintrust caught up with AtmosAir Solutions President and CEO to learn more about this revolutionary technology.
Healthy Indoor Air Impacts: An Interview with the President and CEO, Steve Levine
LWOS / The Braintrust: How many employees does the firm have? What sorts of backgrounds do they have?
Levine: AtmosAir Solutions has approximately 75 full-time team members, with expertise spanning mechanical engineering, software and hardware engineering, energy and sustainability professionals, project management, field service, manufacturing, sales, and technical support.
For major stadium and arena projects, AtmosAir works closely with mechanical contractors, engineers, and HVAC partners throughout the country. We have rep partners in all 50 states. Our team is responsible for system design, equipment selection and sizing, technical support, commissioning, and ongoing performance support, while qualified local partners typically perform the physical installation.
The number of professionals involved varies considerably depending on the size and complexity of the facility. A major professional sports venue may involve AtmosAir engineers and project managers working alongside the owner’s facility team, consulting engineers, controls contractors, mechanical contractors, and electricians. This model allows us to support everything from a relatively small indoor facility to some of the largest stadiums and arenas in the country.
LWOS / The Braintrust: Are there ways this technology can be used on smaller scales — small indoor arenas, public areas, schools, government buildings, etc.?
Levine: Absolutely. Professional sports stadiums and arenas represent only one part of AtmosAir’s business. AtmosAir has approximately 12,000 air purification systems installed, and 250,000 monitoring systems across 1.1 billion sq ft. of real estate in 80 counties. The technology is scalable from residential applications to full arenas and buildings such as the Empire State Building, whose owner, Empire State Realty Trust, is one of our customers.
Our systems are used across commercial offices, hotels and resorts, healthcare facilities, schools and universities, airports, cruise ships, senior living communities, government facilities and sports and entertainment venues. AtmosAir technology has been deployed by organizations including Google, Comcast, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, as well as major commercial real estate organizations such as Brookfield, CBRE, JLL and Cushman & Wakefield.
In hospitality, AtmosAir has worked with properties and brands associated with Four Seasons, Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, Hard Rock, Moxy and Loews. Cruise applications include Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Princess Cruises, Antarctica21, Celestyal Cruises and Virgin Voyages. Our airport installations include facilities at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Chicago O’Hare International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport. We have also worked with colleges and universities including USC, Vanderbilt and Northwestern, among many others.
The same fundamental technology used in a large professional stadium can therefore be applied to a much smaller arena, school, government building, or other public facility. The primary difference is the size, configuration, and number of systems required for the HVAC equipment serving that space.
Healthy Indoor Air Impacts: Future Developments
LWOS / The Braintrust: Any future expansion ideas that are being considered, if they can be revealed? Could this extend into homes, vehicles, planes?
Levine: Our primary focus for 2027 is continued expansion across the markets where we are already seeing significant demand, including sports and entertainment, healthcare, hospitality, commercial real estate, education, airports and transportation, cruise ships, senior living,g and other institutional facilities. We’re also seeing the industry move beyond simply installing an air-cleaning device. The future is increasingly about combining air purification, real-time indoor air quality monitoring, intelligent controls, and data analytics so that building owners can better understand and manage their indoor environments with AI. Helping owners understand and operate their building better through AI is the immediate future.
LWOS / The Braintrust: Has the company been able to identify a list or examples of what viruses have been attacked so far? Germs? For example, has it attacked measles, flu, and cold viruses, even COVID-like organisms?
Levine: Y es. AtmosAir’s patented Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) bipolar ionization technology has undergone extensive laboratory testing against a variety of viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms. Independent laboratory studies have demonstrated significant reductions in representative pathogens including human coronavirus 229E, H1N1 influenza A, MS2 bacteriophage, E. coli, and Staphylococcus. Testing has demonstrated greater than 99.9% reduction of human coronavirus 229E and H1N1 influenza, while separate laboratory testing demonstrated a 99% reduction of aerosolized MS2 bacteriophage after 45 minutes. MS2 is a particularly resistant non-enveloped virus frequently used in laboratory research as a challenging viral surrogate. AtmosAir has also undergone testing involving bacterial and microbial contaminants, including E. coli, Staphylococcus, and C. difficile. Rather than waiting for contaminants to pass through a filter, AtmosAir’s DBD technology generates controlled ions that are introduced into the airstream and distributed throughout the occupied environment as part of the building’s HVAC system.
What we can point to is a substantial body of independent testing across different classes of viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms, including influenza and a human coronavirus.
The Last Word
Research on player safety has resulted in improved protective padding, knee braces, safer helmets, sports drinks, and more. A new development comes from AtmosAir Solutions, with revolutionary technology that makes the air in stadiums, including locker rooms, training rooms, and weight rooms, safer and healthier. The primary goal is to keep players healthy and off the injured list, but of course, the benefits to everyone working for a team. This is further proof that technology continues to make the game safer and promotes better safety at NFL games.
More NFL News