How the 2026 World Cup is tackling its turf problem with the ‘most micromanaged grass in the world'

Yahoo

13-03-2025

The refrigerated trucks will rumble down a thousand miles of highway, tracked by the minute and packed with rolls of the most precious grass in sports.
They'll arrive at SoFi Stadium in Southern California, and at other NFL stadiums next June, on the home stretch of a years-long search for solutions to a 2026 World Cup problem: turf.
Seven of 11 U.S. venues have the artificial kind; but international soccer disdains it. So, as soccer's crown jewel comes to North America, renowned professors, agronomists, engineers and construction workers are on a mission to replace synthetic surfaces with what one expert lovingly calls 'some of the most micromanaged grass in the world.'
Their mission has spanned continents and universities, 'shade houses' and sod farms, sun and artificial light. It has cost millions of dollars. It has spawned uncertainty and anxiety. But soon, organizers believe, it will help bring the World Cup to life.
Because it has yielded a plan — one that SoFi Stadium will pilot at the CONCACAF Nations League finals next week.
The plan is to weave artificial fibers into natural grass grown on plastic; lay this 'hybrid' grass on an innovative Permavoid drainage layer; and fuse together a temporary pitch on par with the best of the English Premier League, as AT&T Stadium did last fall.
Ready to roll ⚽️ Find tickets ➡️ https://t.co/j615K0EKOE pic.twitter.com/51ZoeDsDPD
— AT&T Stadium (@ATTStadium) September 10, 2024
It will require 'an army of people' and 'a 24/7 operation'; computerized tractors and proprietary machinery; 'exhaustive' testing and constant tweaks over the coming 15 months. It sounds, perhaps, a bit excessive.
But to FIFA, it's of 'the highest importance,' as World Cup chief Heimo Schirgi said. And it's necessary, in part, because previous stateside soccer tournaments have been marred by fields that were 'a disaster.'
The most recent major one, the 2024 Copa América, opened on a pitch that players said felt 'like a trampoline.' Argentina defender Cristian Romero called the conditions at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta 'very ugly.' U.S. midfielder Weston McKennie, speaking the following day, expressed a sentiment shared by hundreds of pros who've visited NFL venues with makeshift mats for friendlies and other competitions: 'It's frustrating,' he said, to play 'on a football field, with laid grass that's all patchy, and it breaks up every step you take.'
That, in a nutshell, is the problem FIFA confronted when it chose the U.S., Canada and Mexico to host this World Cup. Eight of the 16 selected stadiums have artificial surfaces. Five have roofs. Some lacked underground infrastructure for ventilation and irrigation. 'It's really difficult,' says Adam Fullerton, Mercedes-Benz Stadium's VP of operations, 'to put grass in stadiums like this.'
So, over the past few years, at FIFA's command, they've built that critical infrastructure. In consultation with researchers, they've developed novel schemes to grow and maintain grass indoors. As showtime looms, and dress rehearsals near, they're confident in those schemes — but also nervous for one very simple reason.
'This,' says Otto Benedict, the SVP of facilities at SoFi Stadium, 'hasn't been done before.'
The search for solutions began, in earnest, back in 2019 at a familiar place. FIFA recruited John Sorochan and then Trey Rogers, turfgrass gurus at the University of Tennessee and Michigan State, who in 1994 had confronted a similar challenge for soccer's global governing body: putting grass in the Pontiac Silverdome for North America's last men's World Cup.
Three decades later, they launched a multi-million dollar research project. They used the 'shade house' at Tennessee to study indoor growing, and the asphalt pad at Michigan State to trial under-surface materials. They traveled the continent and the world, and used a patent-pending 'fLEX' device — which simulates a cleated human foot hitting the grass, and measures the forces generated — to test 'probably 125 stadiums,' including 'several in England,' Sorochan says. That testing, plus thousands of other data points, allowed them to establish 'corridors,' or benchmarks, for the 'ideal pitch.' The home fields of Arsenal (Emirates Stadium) and Aston Villa (Villa Park) were deemed the gold standards.
But they could not, of course, just copy and paste those pitches from England. Their 2026 World Cup venues come with different capabilities and climates. Among those 16, they've taken an 'à la carte' approach, even to seemingly simple things like grass type. Toronto's BMO Field, for example, had Kentucky bluegrass; Miami's Hard Rock Stadium and several others use Bermuda grass; Mexico City's Estadio Azteca has Kikuyu grass, a species native to East African highlands that suits the city's altitude; SoFi and Lumen Field in Seattle will need a 'cool season' species — perhaps a mix of bluegrass and ryegrass — while Atlanta and Houston will probably get something else.
One common thread, however, will bind all 16 fields. Even the ones that already have natural grass will install a specialized 'hybrid' surface — a blend of 90-95% grass and 5-10% artificial filament that's common in Europe but rare in America. The artificial blades sit a quarter-inch below the real ones, reinforcing the pitch and adding stability. They can either be stitched into the natural grass at stadiums, or essentially baked into it at the birthplace of each World Cup field: the turf farm.
At the 650-acre Washington home of Desert Green Turf, which will supply a few World Cup stadiums, the precious grass will be planted this April. On a laser-graded, 100,000-square-foot plot, a double-drum asphalt roller creates a flawless base. Then a GPS-operated tractor places a thin layer of sand over plastic — which will bind the plant's roots and keep them intact when harvested months later.
Next comes a carpet of artificial turf, but with a biodegradable backing. When the backing degrades, it leaves only the synthetic fibers, which peek above the surface as sand is added, three millimeters at a time. Then, seeds are planted; the natural grass essentially grows up through those fibers, creating the hybrid mixture that FIFA demands.
Then, for months, it must be monitored and fed. Employees take moisture readings four times per day, and carefully water it at night. Every Monday, they also send bunches of blades to a lab, which reads the grass' vitals — nitrogen, phosphate, calcium, magnesium, iron and levels of other trace minerals. Those readings inform the lawn care. 'We gotta make sure it's getting just what the plant needs,' says Nathan Cox, Desert Green's president.
They will nurture it for months, through the summer and fall. They'll check it once a day as it sleeps through winter. It will wake in the spring of 2026, and in June, soon after its 13-month birthday, it will be ready for showtime. Harvesting machines will slice it into 4-by-45-foot strips, roll it up, and load it into refrigerated shipping containers called reefers. The reefers, kept at 34 degrees and attached to semis, will depart the farm at 15-minute intervals. Their drivers, two per truck, each vetted and ranked by average speed, will then power through a 20-hour journey to SoCal.
More than two dozen trucks, each carrying 20-plus tons of sod, will connect this multi-day, 1,200-mile assembly line. They'll pull into a loading dock at SoFi Stadium; the strips of sod will be laid, then hydraulically pressed together; and this detail-intensive process — versions of which will take place at other farms and stadiums across America — will be complete.
A pitch months in the making 🚜🚧While foundation preparations were made on site at SoFi Stadium, the grass for this year's soccer matches was grown and harvested in Moses Lake, Washington by Desert Green Turf then shipped to Los Angeles.#TheWorldStage pic.twitter.com/Mv5szcdx7c
— SoFi Stadium (@SoFiStadium) March 10, 2025
'Everybody,' Cox says, is 'working around the clock.' Every piece has 'a backup of a backup of a backup.' Everything, says Evan Fowler, Desert Green's VP, is 'very technical' work that 'takes a lot of cutting-edge stuff.'
But in a way, it's the easy part. Everyone's sure that the sod farms will get it right.
What FIFA and researchers had to figure out was how to support this manicured grass at stadiums that weren't built to do so.
A 'conventional' soccer field sits on 12 inches of sand, and feeds on sunlight plus water that can drain.
The fields that ill-equipped NFL stadiums have used for soccer over the years were different — and sometimes deficient. Strips of thick sod were laid over artificial turf or directly on the stadium's floor. Some played fine, but others felt spongy or jumpy, depending on what, exactly, was underneath them.
And if the fields were laid only a few days before a game, with insufficient time to settle, they'd be patchy. But if they were laid too early for a multi-week tournament, without proper irrigation and air flow, they'd start to die.
The World Cup accentuated this challenge. 'It is the most intense match schedule of any tournament,' says Alan Ferguson, FIFA's field management czar.
So, for 2026, the irrigation and ventilation systems became non-negotiables. Stadiums such as SoFi, Mercedes-Benz in Atlanta, MetLife in New Jersey and Gillette in Massachusetts have undergone construction this NFL offseason and last to ready themselves. Some, like Atlanta, will install their World Cup field months in advance, and care for it like a permanent pitch — albeit one that'll then be removed before the 2026 NFL season, because artificial turf can better accommodate the stadium's many non-sporting events.
Others, though, are planning to install their World Cup fields in early June, and this is where the university research comes in. Sorochan and Rogers developed what they call a 'shallow pitch profile' — with a permeable black drainage module, which enables irrigation and SubAir systems, sitting between thinner sod and the stadium floor. The grass' roots tack into a geotextile, and the field's texture feels pure. 'You can play on it,' Sorochan said, 'and the ground reaction forces are the same as a conventional construction build.'
Maintaining the field will still be tricky — and require bright-violet LED 'grow lights.'; those, as Benedict says, 'replicate the natural sunlight that grass wants.' They've become widely used around the world, by soccer clubs (including Arsenal) and marijuana growers and others. They'll be at AT&T Stadium in Texas, and at Mercedes-Benz and SoFi, where retractable roofs might actually stay closed to 'control variables."
Maintenance will also require daily testing by stadium-specific 'pitch managers'; the tests will allow them to map the field, adjust their water supplies or mowing strategies, and fertilize where necessary throughout the World Cup.
And it will, surely, require things that nobody ever considered.
'Obviously,' Ferguson says, 'you never know until you actually deliver the pitches.'
The first reefers arrived at SoFi Stadium last week with a replica ready for its truest test yet. With construction complete, Desert Green's team installed what Benedict calls 'the model for the FIFA 2026 World Cup pitch that we'll use [next summer].' They're preparing it for next week's Nations League semifinals — U.S. vs. Panama, Mexico vs. Canada — and then for a U.S. women's national team friendly against Brazil next month.
'What we do here in 2025,' Benedict said, '[will allow us] to fine-tune and test and say, 'Hey, what works, what doesn't?''
They will analyze their new grow lights and mowing patterns. They will open and close their retractable roof to assess air flow and the impact of real sunlight. They will host media events and staff soccer matches to 'stress the grass,' Benedict says. And everyone, from FIFA to Benedict's counterparts at other stadiums, will be watching.
'That's what '25 is about,' Benedict explains. It'll offer 'confirmation or denial' that they're on the right track. This summer's Club World Cup and Gold Cup, which together will visit 10 of the 16 World Cup host cities, should offer more evidence. By the end of the year, 'we'll probably have some pretty cool and pretty astonishing learnings,' Benedict says.
But still, there will be unknowns. There will be unforeseen circumstances. 'It'll be stressful,' Benedict says with a slight grin, 'all the way until sometime in late July of '26, when we can get this [field] out of here.'