2025 RISING STAR AWARDS GAGE KNUDSON

SENIOR MANAGER, TURF AND GROUNDS LOS ANGELES FOOTBALL CLUB

ising Star Award Winner Gage

Knudson oversees one of the busiest multi-use venues in the country as senior manager, turf and grounds, for BMO Stadium— home of Los Angeles Football Club( LAFC).

“ When the club started in 2018, the original vision for the stadium was to be a multi-sport venue that hosted soccer, rugby and lacrosse with the occasional concert,” said Knudson.“ The following year( 2019), when I arrived, we had three or four concerts on the books with the hope of another show or two the next year— and then COVID happened.

“ Coming out of COVID there was a shift in focus of what we wanted to do from a business perspective, and that drove the concert business for us at LAFC,” Knudson added.“ We hit it hard and had eight concerts; the following year we added four more onto that.

We also added another tenant in 2022, when it was announced that Angel City Football Club, a professional women’ s team playing in NWSL, would be playing at BMO Stadium.”

The event load at BMO Stadium now includes wide range of concerts and events on top of the full Major

League Soccer( MLS) schedule for LAFC and the NWSL schedule for Angel City FC. In the last year, for example, BMO Stadium hosted 62 games, as well as 32 miscellaneous field events, including 16 different concerts, and 10 commercials or other film projects at the stadium. According to Knudson, that has become the sweet spot for BMO Stadium.

“ We average somewhere between 2-1 / 2 and 3-1 / 2 days between field events over the last couple of years,” he said.“ So a big part of my career is just trying to figure out how do you solve this Rubik’ s Cube of high use.”

But Knudson is eager to solve problems and figure out how things work.

“ I’ m very driven and curious in what I do,” he said.“ When I found out that I could do a job like this, that drove me and influenced my career. I had no idea that you could even get into this industry and that there were people who manage fields as a career.”

Originally from Junction City, Kansas, Knudson played football and baseball, and also wrestled. And although he grew up in the city, he helped on his grandparents’ farm by milking cows and mowing pastures. That led him sportsfieldmanagementonline. com October 2025 | SportsField Management

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