of world cup Pitch is so widespread that it’s hard to ignore. The staff who placed them hope fans won’t notice them at all.
It took a lot of effort to design turfs suitable for various stadiums and to keep them in pristine condition throughout the competition period. tournamentthe goal is to never attract attention.
After all, there’s nothing worse than uneven patches, divots, and wear spots that can affect a player’s feet when they should be focusing on the game itself.
“We want to give credit to the pitch managers who have done a great job of making these canvases look nice and beautiful and play perfectly, and people look at it and admire it, but then they go on to say, ‘Oh, what a great goal, what a great header,'” said John Sorochan, professor of turfgrass science in the University of Tennessee’s Department of Plant Sciences.
Tennessee and Michigan State University have been working for nearly eight years to develop an environmentally optimal hybrid grass surface. 16 stadiums It spreads to Canada, Mexico and the United States and hosts World Cup matches.
FIFA has strict requirements for pitches, and in order to be competitively neutral, pitches must be almost entirely natural grass and playable in the same way. This World Cup will be particularly demanding on grounds staff, with an expanded field of 48 teams and 104 games in total.
Eight of the World Cup stadiums (seven in the United States and one in Canada) typically have artificial turf. All eight of these venues, except Vancouver’s BC Place, are home to NFL teams. Five of them are covered, partially covered, or have retractable roofs.
Test drive in Seattle
Seattle’s Lumen Field, home of the NFL’s Seahawks, was one of the first stadiums to switch from artificial turf to turf ahead of the tournament, which begins Thursday.
The process involved laying a wooden frame drainage and ventilation structure over the existing field, covering it with more than 10 inches of sand, spreading locally grown grass, and stitching the whole thing together with synthetic fiber reinforcement.
Seattle is scheduled to host six games. Work to lay the grass began in March and was completed in April. The U.S. women’s national team gets its first chance. To play with it.
U.S. captain Lindsey Heaps gave exactly what the turf guru expected.
“I didn’t notice it at all, so that was a good thing,” Heaps said.
SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles The latest to receive the turf was May 13, when it was delivered from Washington state, 30 days before the opening World Cup game between the United States and Paraguay.
2 types of grass, different weather
Not only were turf experts responsible for covering the artificial turf surfaces, but the geographical spread of the World Cup also meant a variety of climates. Monterrey, Mexico is hotter and more humid during the summer, while BC Place is located in a cooler northern region.
As a result, they came up with two different blends. Bermuda grass is used in warmer climates, while perennial rye mixed with Kentucky bluegrass is installed in cooler climates and indoor venues. The turf for both the stadium and practice field was grown and harvested at 10 turf farms across the three host countries.
Dallas had its challenges.
AT&T Stadium will be renamed Dallas Stadium for the tournament and will host nine games. more than any other venue.
New turf was installed at the home of the Dallas Cowboys in early May. It was grown in Colorado and transported by refrigerated truck to the stadium in Arlington.
There was one issue worth noting. The stadium has a retractable roof, which means no sunlight reaches the field. So engineers hung pink grow lights from the ceiling to keep the grass clean. The result is a kind of Barbicoa meets World Cup.
“They’ve never been suspended from the ceiling before, so basically what’s great is that these systems usually have wheels for use in and out of the facility, and they can be lifted up. So it’s one less thing on the field,” said World Cup head of pitch infrastructure Ewen Hodge.
Lessons Learned, Lasting Legacy
Sorochan became fascinated with turf management in 1994, when the World Cup was last held in the United States. As a student at Michigan State University, his job was to lay the grass and help mow the field on game days.
At the end of the tournament, he observed the turf from the top of the Pontiac Silverdome.
“We brought it in and kept it indoors for 30 days, and we didn’t have grow lights, we didn’t have all the technology we have today with hybrid reinforcement, so in 30 days without sunlight, it kind of degraded and broke,” Sorochan said. “It held up in the four games and practice sessions they had, but you could definitely see the wear and tear on the field. We thought, how can we improve that?”
The turf surface and turf management science that Sorochan and his colleagues have perfected for this World Cup pitch allows for a variety of events to be enjoyed at a variety of venues.
The turf system can be quickly installed and dismantled, allowing the stadium to host tight schedules such as tractor pulls, NFL games, and elite soccer games. However, this technology can also be used at the municipal level.
“Rather than watering from above, we can now develop hydroponic systems that grow grass below and reuse water. We can use the same water before and after, creating pitches that are more sustainable and truly benefit the local community,” Sorochan said. “These are some of the great results coming out of this research that are just starting to explode over the next five to 10 years. This is going to be an unintended game changer.”
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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
