With World Cup looming, these scientists are trying to create the perfect grass

NBC News

2 days ago

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — From thrilling goals to devastating knockout defeats, every four years the FIFA World Cup electrifies the globe.
And in one year, 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off with the United States, Canada and Mexico co-hosting an unprecedented event.
The tournament, which could feature the likes of superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, will mark the first time three countries co-host across 16 different cities, making for what FIFA sees as the most complex World Cup in history.
'Whether they're playing Seattle or Guadalajara, I need these pitches to behave absolutely the same. I want the same bounce. I want the same volleyball action from the players into the grass,' said FIFA senior pitch management manager Alan Ferguson, who wants every team to play on a consistent surface, whether it's keeping cool in the Pacific Northwest, at altitude in Mexico City or sweating it out in Miami.
'The safety aspect is everything. It's paramount. That has to be my first thought,' Ferguson said in an interview at the facility at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where UT researchers, working with Michigan State University, have been helping FIFA finalize how each venue will prepare its pitch for tournament play.
'They need to have confidence if they turn right sharply, left sharply, they have to know that the ground is going to stay where it is,' he said.
That's not so simple when you're dealing with over a dozen venues that host the NFL to concerts to monster trucks.
U.S. venues are likely to face extra scrutiny after last summer's Copa América tournament, in which pitch conditions drew public criticism from players such as Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who called the temporary grass field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta a "disaster."
'It's definitely upped the stakes, there's no doubt about that," Ferguson said about the fallout from last year's tournament featuring the 16 best teams from North, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean.
"The research was already happening. What we were able to observe at Copa was more traditional, provisional for international soccer pitches. Because your stadiums are so busy here, they are a multi-event business plan, and they flip in and out from event to event. It's not possible to put a traditional soccer field in there,' said Ferguson, adding that with the research leading up to this summer's Club World Cup and next year's marquee event, 'I'm quietly confident we're heading in the right direction.'
U.S. stadiums have been at the heart of the artificial turf-natural grass debate over safety for years. Next summer, all venues will use a natural grass-artificial stitching blend with a focus on what's beneath the turf in addition to the playing surface itself.
In April, NBC News was granted exclusive access to the Knoxville facility where researchers led by Professor John Sorochan have been solving for that issue.
The team has studied artificial stitching, layering below the grass, root growth, grow light use and other details to ensure each pitch's consistency, whether outdoors or inside.
Sorochan, professor of turfgrass science and management, said the secret sauce will include Bermuda grass for the warm season venues and perennial rye mixed with Kentucky blue grass for the cool season venues, as well as the indoor venues. There are also drainage layer recommendations for the indoor venues, which Sorochan said will also help with the pitches' firmness.
'A lot of these in here are failures,' Sorochan said as he showed us around a grid filled with dozens of grass plots marked by a variety of variables. Some had stitched fibers, making the playing surface firmer. Some sat on top layers simulating what may already be inside a World Cup venue, such as aluminum concert flooring or artificial turf.
The team has a facility simulating an indoor stadium's growing conditions. There's even the fLEX machine, which tests the impact on a player's ankle by pushing a soccer shoe into the turf. Seemingly, no piece of data is irrelevant.
'We can see how fast the ball comes in and out. We can break down all the film and know exactly the speed and angle and coefficient restitution that comes off of that ball,' said Sorochan, standing over a machine that looks like it could be used to launch American footballs for punt return practice.