TURFGRASS RESEARCH on. There are going to be periods— match day minus one and match day— that the lights won’ t be on at all. So they’ re going to go 24 to 48 hours without light. If they want to have a rehearsal match day minus two and we have to take the lights off, that’ s going to be a challenge.”
Proper irrigation for the shallow profile turf in the domed stadiums is another aspect the researchers are examining.
“ We started implementing wetting agent trials, because if we do a shallow profile the irrigation is going to be different,” said Sorochan.“ On match day, when they want to water five times before the game to get the grass blades wet, can we adjust that because it doesn’ t dry out as fast in the indoor stadiums? They’ ll stay wet and be consistent throughout the game a lot better than a hot, dry day in Kansas City.”
According to Fielder, the training sites and base camps in each host city add even another layer of consideration.
“ It’ s a challenge alone having 16 premier stadiums that are going to play as close as possible to one another throughout the tournament, to now we’ re talking about 100 pitches at the 49 different training sites that need to be consistent,” said Fielder.“ So we’ re just providing a blueprint to work from overall, and then taking other people’ s opinions into account and working with individual field managers.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino( left) praised the research efforts at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’ s turf research and development facility during a recent visit.
SHARING THE BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS The research team pointed out that the blueprint for the World Cup 26 pitches is a guideline for the field managers at the host sites.
“ We’ re going to come up with recipes or guidelines because every stadium is being managed à la carte,” said Sorochan.“ We’ re trying to bring 16 à la carte recipes or guidelines of management that will be homogenized across all 16 stadiums for consistency and uniformity.”
Sorochan added that interaction with the field managers at the host sites will vary from stadium to stadium, but his team is in constant communication with the pitch management team at FIFA.
“ As researchers, we’ re just here to provide evidence-based data, be a sounding board, and give guidance for what we think is going to be successful in each venue,” he said.
Eight of the 16 venues being used don’ t currently have natural turfgrass. As a result, lessons learned throughout the research at UT and MSU will sportsfieldmanagementonline. com April 2025 | SportsField Management
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