Popmartijn
Blue Crack Supplier
Either they need something like 8 or 10 hours realistically, or there is something else going on.
I think your first theory might be very close to the truth. It's also what I think.
As others have found out, the announcement of the game brought forward three hours already came in April. At that time, the stage wasn't even built. They probably thought that they could make it so that the stage could be taken down in about 36 hours (which is roughly from midnight Fri/Sat night until noon Sunday, providing no building up has to be done for the American football game).
When the stage was ready in June, they found out that it might very well take longer to disassemble the Claw, but they haven't practiced it yet. When the crew gets more experienced, the time needed to take down the stage will decrease.
However, during the tour, it becomes known that even with more experience, they cannot shorten the time even more. They faced a cut-off date after the Dutch and Irish concert. I think that after both concerts, the cut-off time was 6 PM after the next day (so about 42 hours after the end of the concert). In the Netherlands they made it, barely (I heard they were finished at 5:40 PM).
So, now the first leg has finished they saw that it wasn't possible to be ready before the cut-off time and thus they made the decision to reschedule. I don't think that in the end moving the cut-off time forward three hours is the real cause. Even with a 4 PM game they wouldn't have made it. The stage is just too big to disassemble in the time given to them by the stadium.