World Cup
“The temporary installation of natural grass fields for the World Cup is a choice by certain NFL team owners to do for soccer players what they refuse to do for NFL players.”
Gillette Stadium underwent a long and meticulous process to install a grass playing surface for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the effort has led NFL players to restart the conversation about games being played on turf.
When it was announced in June of 2022 that the World Cup was coming to Boston, Gillette Stadium — which will be known as “Boston Stadium” throughout the tournament — knew that it needed to transform its playing surface.
“FIFA wants natural grass because that’s just the way they play the game,” Trey Rogers, a professor in turf grass management at Michigan State University, told reporters in March. “The ball reacts differently on natural grass. The players know that. These are the best players in the world. They can tell if something is a little bit off.”
Converting from turf to grass
The stadium in Foxborough has used artificial turf since 2006. With international soccer commonly — if not unanimously — being played on natural grass, all World Cup venues needed to ensure that the games would be played on a surface that traditionally requires much more maintenance compared to an artificial one.
Rogers has been working with FIFA regarding the playing surfaces since 2019. He also noted that on top of having natural grass, World Cup venues needed to have a lighting system and a vacuum ventilation system in case of rain. Because Gillette Stadium had natural grass in a prior life, it had an intact drainage system that didn’t need any repairs.
Additionally, the process of installing the grass was aided by Gillette Stadium having a “full Hydronic Heating System,” a “Sub-Air System” that manages moisture, as well as grow lights.
“Weather runs my life. It’s such a major factor in what we do, especially with natural grass,” Gillette Stadium Superintendent Ryan Bjorn said. “Our goal is to have as many tools as we possibly can to control as many factors as we can, knowing that here in New England, weather is the one thing we really can’t control.”
The process of installing the grass began the day after the Patriots’ send-off celebration for Super Bowl LX, and was finished in about six weeks. The first step was to rip out the turf, then dig up 10 inches of gravel that was underneath the playing surface. After that, workers refilled the space with sand and porous ceramic before laying the sod on top.
The grass is a combination of 85 percent Kentucky Bluegrass and 15 percent Perennial Ryegrass. The height stands at 0.9 inches.
“The turf itself came from Tuckahoe in New Jersey, that was specially grown to the specifications that we gave the sod farm a couple years ago from the research that we did that FIFA sponsored,” Rogers told the media.
In New Jersey, the sod was harvested and then placed on a plastic sheet using a technique aptly called “Sod-on-Plastic.” This technique helps to maintain the grass’s root system, Rogers told Michigan State University. Then the sod is put into refrigerated trucks to be transported to where it will be laid down.
“It also helps that it’s very thick and heavy,” Bjorn said. “So we really could have played on it the day after we laid it.”
The match between Scotland and Haiti will not only be a spectacle for the players on the pitch. For Bjorn, it will be the culmination of his hard work to create the best possible playing surface for the largest stage in all of sports.
The long-term debate
While the World Cup is the main mission, the fact that stadiums that primarily host American football teams are going to great lengths for the tournament has caught the attention of the NFL Players Association.
“You look at FIFA, they’re rolling out the green carpet for soccer players,” NFLPA executive director JC Tretter said in a recent episode of the “Not Just Football” podcast. “And that has become the norm. Over in European leagues, that is what you do. You play on grass. They have surface standards that each thing is rolled out. It’s exactly how it’s supposed to be. And those players will not play if it’s not that.”
The effort that stadiums have made to host World Cup games has not been lost on the NFLPA.
“The temporary installation of natural grass fields for the World Cup is a choice by certain NFL team owners to do for soccer players what they refuse to do for NFL players,” a statement from the NFLPA provided to Boston.com said. “It’s no longer a question of capability; the technology exists, the expertise exists and the resources exist to install the high-level grass fields that our players overwhelmingly prefer.”
Tretter also authored a post on the NFLPA website where he stated that based on NFL injury data collected from 2012 to 2018, the contact injury rate for lower extremities was higher during practices and games held on artificial turf. NFL players also consistently experienced a much higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries on turf compared to natural surfaces, according to Tretter.
The NFLPA executive director also noted that players have a 28 percent higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries when playing on artificial turf. Of those non-contact injuries, players have a 32 percent higher rate of non-contact knee injuries on turf and a staggering 69 percent higher rate of non-contact foot/ankle injuries on turf compared to grass.
“We have seen the meaningful investments made to meet the standard for international athletes and global events,” the statement added. “NFL players – who regularly compete on these fields, help fund these stadiums, and whose work makes the league what it is today — deserve the same commitment to quality grass fields.”
The local view, and a possible World Cup legacy
Patriots special teamer Brenden Schooler was asked about the playing surface in May and discussed what he noticed as benefits to playing on grass. According to Tretter, the NFLPA polled 1,700 players and 92 percent expressed a preference for playing on grass over turf.
“Just speaking personally for myself, I love playing on grass,” Schooler said. “I think it’s got more give on it, doesn’t hurt as bad when you fall. When it’s freezing out, it doesn’t cut you up as bad as turf does. You don’t have to worry about turf burn. And I think from doing my own research and looking at data and stuff, I think turf — you have the unfortunate thing that you kind of get caught up, and guys get rolled up on, and your knee gets, or ankle gets stuck. And like I was saying, grass has got a little bit more give.
“You talk about longevity, you talk about injuries, you talk about, you know, wanting to make sure your joints feel great,” he added. “Playing a game on turf. After, like, not gonna lie — my knees ache, my ankles ache. It’s a little bit more harsh on your body.”
This is the first year that the NFL has created standards regarding the synthetic playing surfaces that exist in the league, and will be used when new turf is put into a stadium or practice facility. Some of the factors involve the level of traction the surface has as well as the energy return on players’ bodies, as that is a common refrain from players regarding why they feel poorly after playing on turf in relation to grass. Bank of America Stadium, which is home to the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC, is actually the first stadium to meet these new standards.
For the NFLPA, there is a level of tension in the creation of these standards. They are putting in a lot of work and research into a playing surface that is far from preferred by its player base.
Part of that research was a force plate study conducted in conjunction with the NFLPA and the league to figure out how much force a playing surface needs to sustain to maintain its performance.
So while the soccer world is pondering what the impacts of the 2026 World Cup will be, one of the largest could be NFL stadiums permanently switching to grass.
As of publishing, the MLSPA have yet to issue a comment for our story.
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