The 2026 FIFA World Cup opens today. Stadiums in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will host a total of 104 matches.
While millions of people around the globe will be watching for their favorite teams and players, John "Trey" Rogers and Jackie Lyn Guevara will be watching the grass.
Rogers and Guevara are turf researchers at Michigan State University. A team of experts from the University of Tennessee and MSU collaborated to develop turf that has been shipped all over North America for the World Cup.
They spoke with Michigan Public Morning Edition host Doug Tribou.
Doug Tribou: In an article for The Conversation, you and your colleagues wrote about the elaborate process of getting the turf right for the World Cup. And it starts out with some ground rules, so to speak, that FIFA has laid out. Trey, what are the requirements for the FIFA World Cup pitches?
TR: Number one is that we have to play all these games on natural grass. That in itself can be quite a challenge because of the 16 stadiums that are going to host World Cup games, eight of those stadiums don't have natural grass in them. So this means temporary fields have to be built.
You know, the idea that some people might have is just laying grass over the top of the artificial turf. That's not considered World Cup conditions. So it's a much more elaborate construction process — bringing in root zone, bringing in drainage pipes, irrigation system — essentially building a temporary field inside these stadiums.
And one of the things that FIFA was very demanding of is: we want our athletes to have a predictable surface from site to site, realizing, of course, we're in Vancouver at sea level in a dome or at Mexico City, at 7,200 feet, just a few hundred miles from the equator, all the way back up to a place like Boston.
DT: What makes the natural part of the turf that you developed tough enough to hold up?
Jackie Lyn Guevara: The first is the way we grew the sod or the grass. So there is an impermeable layer, in this case a plastic. So if we grow grass on there, we put some sand or the soil then put some seed in it. Just imagine that the roots will grow and it will hit the plastic, and then it will grow laterally, creating this dense rooting system.
DT: You noted in your article for The Conversation that FIFA requires real grass, but it also needs to be reinforced. Can you explain how you wove plastic into the real turf and why that's important?
TR: The traffic that is on one game for a World Cup — now, it's not just the player traffic, it's all the extra traffic. Opening ceremonies, things of this nature — that traffic is equal to one Super Bowl. Well, if you think about that, there will be some stadiums that are going to have nine Super Bowls over a relatively short period of time.
So these fibers, these artificial fibers that are woven in are extremely important for us for giving us that reinforcement. They are done in two types. One is a carpet that has these fibers in it. That is actually done at the sod farm. The other is the stitching. And the stitching actually took place after the turf was installed. There's a machine and it would have, you know, needles that would be punching into the ground. Those needles probably go anywhere — again, depending — 4 to 7 inches into the ground.
DT: Where were the bulk of the sods grown? Was that mostly in the southern climate in the U.S.?
TR: So once the final recipe, which was 84% Kentucky bluegrass and 16% perennial rye grass, once that was identified, then we were able to give that recipe to the various sod farms. There were two in Canada, one in Mexico. The rest were in the United States.
So over the last four to six weeks, you may have seen a truck going around. You didn't know what it had in it. But there's a good chance it had several thousand square feet of grass in a refrigerated truck headed from Denver, Colo., to Atlanta, Ga. It's been quite a logistical feat.
DT: One question I had about the logistics is you have these massive rolls of sod, but they're obviously not the full size of a field. So you have seams between each piece of sod. How does that work to keep those together once they're laid out?
JLG: Just imagine having a two-inch layer of sand and grass and having a reinforcement. It gets really heavy. Once you roll it down on a field, it won't move after that.
DT: What happens to all the sod when the tournament's over?
JLG: So what happens to the sod is really up to the stadium managers or the city on how they're going to use the sod right after the tournament.
DT: Well, I don't know if you and your colleagues are soccer fans, but will you be able to enjoy watching any of the matches just for the sport itself? Or will you always be thinking about the grass over the next few weeks?
TR: [It's] rare that I look at any kind of event that's on natural grass and not spend a few minutes looking at the turf. And it doesn't take long for you to really know, at my level, know whether or not a field is going to be pretty good. And I am going to go to a game with my family in Kansas City. So I'm very much looking forward to that as well.
JLG: I used to play a little bit of soccer, but I'm not a die-hard fan. So whenever I watch, for example, the last World Cup, during the penalties, I wasn't really focusing who's really kicking the ball. I'm more worried about the goalmouth, you know, keeping up with all the traffic that happened during the game. But yeah, I am really looking at the grass, very distracted by the grass.
Further reading from The Conversation: We designed the turf for soccer’s biggest World Cup ever – here’s how we created the same playing experience across 3 countries by Trey Rodgers, Jackie Lyn Guevara, John Sorochan, and Ryan Bearss.
Editor's note: Some quotes in this article have been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can play the full audio of this interview near the top of this page.
