When Australian goalkeeper Patrick Beach came off the field after the first FIFA World Cup 2026 game in Vancouver, it wasn’t the crowd or atmosphere that had caught his attention — it was the grass.
“The pitch was great quality tonight, especially when it was nice and wet. The ball was rolling really well,” Beach told The Canadian Press after the game against Turkey on June 14.
“Once we landed and we had a pitch inspection … everyone was buzzing, they loved it, thought it was pretty cool.”
When John Sorochan heard that, he was ecstatic, because it’s taken years of meticulous research and testing to get the field FIFA ready. Sorochan and his team oversaw the installation and care of the grass pitches for all 16 World Cup stadiums, which span across three countries.
“It’s a lot of work, a lot of sweat and tears, a lot of sleepless nights that went into this,” Sorochan, a University of Tennessee distinguished professor who was born in Calgary, told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.
Sorochan was approached by Alan Ferguson, senior pitch manager for FIFA, who tasked him with developing the fields for the World Cup over tea and biscuits in London.
Sorochan agreed, and he and his team at the University of Tennessee partnered with the University of Michigan to take on the massive project, which has taken the last five years.
First, researchers studied the impact and energy of the ball as it hit the surface of the turf, so they could make sure the field was just right.
“What we wanted is the ball not to bounce too high off of the surface, or too low,” said Sorochan.
To do that, they used a training machine that’s typically used for goalies to practise making saves. They instead used it to launch soccer balls at an angle at the grass, with high-speed cameras and radar detectors measuring the speed and angle at which the ball hit the turf, as well as its velocity and angle after the bounce.
They also invented a machine with a 3D-printed foot, equipped with a cleat, to test how the turf would handle the running and cutting from players. Additionally, it measured what a 172-pound soccer player — the average weight of World Cup athletes from the last two events — would feel running on the field.
They ran these experiments in different conditions, with the grasses mowed at different heights.
FIFA takes its grass very, very seriously
This was all done in the name of consistency, because this World Cup — hosted by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico — came with an extra challenge. There’s a big difference between what type of grass is needed for an indoor stadium in one part of the continent, and an outdoor stadium in another, but they all had to feel the same.
Sorochan says the indoor stadiums are made up of a mixture of 70 per cent Kentucky bluegrass and 30 per cent ryegrass, which are often used for homelawns, cemeteries and sports fields. Meanwhile the open air stadium in Miami, for example, requires Bermuda grass.
Those types of grass need to be managed differently, and even mowed at different heights. And it’s essential they get it right, Sorochan says.
“We want to make sure if a team’s playing in Miami and then going up to Boston or Toronto to play, we want to make sure that the ball is going to perform similarly as if they’re in the same stadiums.”
Some of the grass, including the field at B.C. Place Vancouver, was grown in B.C., by Bos Sod Farms in Abbotsford.
Now the fields are out of Sorochan’s hands. Each stadium, such as B.C. Place Vancouver and Toronto Stadium, has a team that’s charged with managing the turf.
It requires specialized irrigation, a UV-light system, and up to 50 people working to take care of it.
“I think when people look at this turf they say, ‘Oh, it’s just grass.’ But it’s much more than just grass,” Tony Valante, who is in charge of infrastructure at B.C. Place Vancouver, told CBC News.
The field was installed with a built-in vacuum system that manages moisture. In between games, the maintenance team is busy mowing, repairing and watering the field. At B.C. Place, they also put up grow lights, as the grass isn’t receiving natural sunlight.
And with the games underway, and others now handling the grass, Sorochan can — for the most part — sit back and listen to the compliments of some of the world’s best soccer players.
“If [players] do talk about the pitch, it’s usually because they slipped or something was wrong,” said Sorochan.
“But so far this World Cup, we’ve been hearing people say that’s the best surface they’ve ever played on … it gives me goosebumps.”
