Kenny Chesney wants to perform for the biggest crowds because he remembers being a fan at the biggest shows.

On Saturday, the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year for 2004, 2006 and 2007 will draw on the lessons of a rock 'n' roll adolescence when he headlines the first concert ever staged at Lucas Oil Stadium.

"Kenny grew up as a fan of both country and rock music," says Louis Messina, the promoter of 11 concerts Chesney played in NFL stadiums this summer. "He's been to every show you can think of. The idea of him playing a stadium like the Rolling Stones and U2 and George Strait -- it's like a dream."

Compared to country acts, rock acts have a more illustrious history of performing in stadiums. Strait, however, played colossal outdoor venues from 1997 to 2001 -- when his "Country Music Festival" featured Chesney on the undercard in 1999 and 2000.

It was on those tours, Messina said, that Chesney "got his taste" for stadium action.

As live performers, Strait and Chesney have little in common. Strait is a no-nonsense Texan who rarely moves more than his lips and guitar-strumming hands during concerts.

For Saturday's packed house of more than 50,000, Chesney will dart high, low, far and wide on a stage that's 164 feet wide and boasts multiple runways extending onto the stadium's floor.

"It's a high-energy show," says J.D. Cannon, on-air personality for radio station WFMS-FM (95.5). "You're on your feet from the time he comes out until the time he's done."

Indianapolis audiences are familiar with Chesney's charismatic ways, as the man known for signature hits "Never Wanted Nothing More," "Big Star" and "How Forever Feels" made Verizon Wireless Music Center a tour stop from 2003 to 2007.

He's one of few present-day acts who can graduate to stadiums from arenas or amphitheaters.

A short list of peers includes the Dave Matthews Band (which played two dates at 24,000-capacity Verizon Wireless Music Center this summer), Jimmy Buffett (who played one date at Verizon this summer) and Miley Cyrus (who sold out 18,000-capacity Conseco Fieldhouse last December).

Gary Bongiovanni, editor of concert industry magazine Pollstar, says most musical acts may be wise to stick with arenas and amphitheaters because there's less financial risk.

"The overhead is a fraction of what it costs to produce a show in a stadium," he says.

The production cost for the Chesney show -- which doesn't include undisclosed fees paid to the headliner and supporting acts Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes, Gary Allan and Luke Bryan -- is $1.4 million.

"That's why I have ulcers, why I'm on nerve medication and why I see a therapist three times a week," says Messina, a Houston-based entrepreneur who staged his first show in a stadium when the Louisiana Superdome opened in 1975. "I ask myself, 'Am I really doing this? Am I crazy?'."

Anxiety aside, Messina's partnership with Chesney is working out. About $3 million in tickets were sold for each NFL stadium date on the "Poets & Pirates" tour.

Chesney's single-day concert at Lucas Oil Stadium is a weeklong commitment. A road crew began building the stage last Monday, and the last of the tour's 55 trucks will roll out of town this Monday.

Messina says it was important for Chesney, who has a well-documented friendship with Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, to make a mark at Lucas Oil Stadium.

"I booked this show two years ago," Messina says. "I went to Indianapolis and met with everybody. I said, 'I want to be the first show in here.'."

How will stadium sound?

A spectacle is guaranteed Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium, where more than 50,000 people will gather for a Kenny Chesney show accented by dynamic lighting and massive video screens.

How the music will sound is another question.

The new home of the Indianapolis Colts replaces the RCA Dome, which is remembered as "terrible" for concert acoustics by WFMS-FM (95.5) on-air personality J.D. Cannon and "horrible" by Lucas Oil Stadium Director Mike Fox.

Put the blame on sound that bounced from the RCA Dome's roof back to audience members a second time. Louis Messina, the Houston-based promoter of Chesney's show, says he brought a Van Halen tour to the RCA Dome in 1988: "I think if you walk in there, you can still hear echoes of music."

Cannon says Lucas Oil Stadium's retractable roof may be its saving grace.

"Hopefully, it will be a nice day so the roof will come off and we won't have that reverberating bass all over," he says.

Messina's best-case scenario is to have the roof open when Chesney and supporting act Keith Urban perform. If temperatures are high earlier in the day, the roof will be closed to provide protection from the heat.

Fox says satisfactory sound is possible even if inclement weather requires the roof to be closed all day and night. The tour uses speakers on a delay system to provide audience members with first-generation sound rather than echo.

On the topic of absorbing sound, Fox cites plastic seats in the stadium's upper level as an improvement over aluminum benches at the RCA Dome, as well as cloth drapes that will cover the large glass window at the south end of the stadium.

"This is a football stadium," Fox says. "We did not build Carnegie Hall here. But there are acoustical features within the structural integrity of the building that, in theory, should make it much better than the RCA Dome."

About the Kenny Chesney show

With: Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes, Gary Allan and Luke Bryan.

When: 4 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Lucas Oil Stadium, 500 S. Capitol Ave.

Tickets: $99.50, $79.50, $59.50 and $29.50. For more information, call (317) 239-5151 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.

Production cost (not including artist fees): $1.4 million.

Stage dimensions: 164 feet wide, more than 70 feet high.

Concert video: More than 2,400 square feet of LED display.

Trucks on tour: 55.

Buses on tour: 28.