From field to pitch: The Linc gears up for FIFA Club World Cup with soccer-friendly turf

Everyone’s going to have to get used to calling Lincoln Financial Field’s playing surface “the pitch,” as new, soccer-specific turf has been laid down for this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup games.

The stadium’s hybrid turf is switching from its usual natural Bermuda grass mixed with some artificial grass, to a Kentucky bluegrass/artificial grass mix.

Eagles Vice President of Grounds Tony Leonard said the process of switching out the turf doesn’t change much, but how the grass and ground feels does.

“For soccer, it’s very important, the ball roll and the ball speed, as well as footing,” he said. “With the NFL, we have slightly larger guys, so there’s more body to it.”

The team started the two-day installation on Monday, after the venue completed a run of  May concerts that included George Strait, Chris Stapleton, Limp Bizkit and Metallica. (We’re gonna guess few people were at all of those shows.)

To meet FIFA’s stadium requirements, seats were also removed to extend the corners of the field (pitch! Sorry, we’ve got it down now), extending the ground level to the FIFA-required 68 meters by 105 meters from the standard 66 meters by 100 meters. This removes a few hundred seats from the seating chart, but Leonard said it won’t impact the stadium’s capacity very much, and the fans in those corners will get a much closer view of the action than usual.

The turf is a HERO Hybrid Grass, composed of 95% natural grass and 5% artificial grass placed in the sod as a carpeted reinforced system. It was brought in from Tuckahoe Turf Farms in Hammonton, N.J., where it had been cultivated for the past year. The Eagles, the farm and FIFA have partnered with the University of Tennessee and Michigan State University to develop top-notch, consistent natural grass surfaces for this and next year’s tournaments. 

“It’s important that we get these pitches playing and looking as identical as we can,” FIFA’s Senior Pitch Management Manager Alan Ferguson said in April at a pitch research field day in Tennessee. “Whether it’s a stadium in Canada, in the Midwest U.S., or down in the mountains of Mexico, we want there to be consistency with what a player feels under his foot. For us, it’s all about the consistency of the playability for the player.” 

The grass was put in two weeks before the tournament begins to give it time to grow, knit and settle in. 

“The more time that we can give the grass to acclimate, the better it will be,” Leonard said.

Once the grass has had that chance to settle, Leonard said, they will put in the specific mowing patterns, paint on the lines, and install the goalposts and sideline benches. Leonard said the pitch will see its first playing action on June 14, two days before the first game, with a practice match to test out the cameras and on-field technology. 

The Linc will host eight of the 63 games in this summer’s Club World Cup, which features the best club teams in the world. The event has grown significantly, switching from an annual tournament to one held every four years, and from seven teams to 32. The tournament kicks off at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on June 14 and closes out at East Rutherford, N.J.’s Metlife Stadium on July 13. 

Here is the full schedule at the Linc.

Group Stage

June 16, 9 p.m.: Group D – Flamengo (Brazil) vs. Espérance Sportive de Tunis (Tunisia)

June 18, noon: Group G – Manchester City (England) vs. Wydad AC (Morocco)

June 20, 2 p.m.: Group D – Flamengo (Brazil) vs. Chelsea (England)

June 22, noon: Group G – Juventus (Italy) vs. Wydad AC

June 24, 9 p.m.: Group D – Espérance Sportive de Tunis vs. Chelsea

June 26, 9 p.m.: Group H – Red Bull Salzburg (Austria) vs. Real Madrid (Spain)

Knockout rounds

June 28, noon: Round-of-16 game

July 4, 9 p.m.: Quarterfinal game

The Club World Cup replaces the Confederations Cup as the tuneup competition for the World Cup. Next year, Philly will have five group stage games of the World Cup, on June 14, 19, 22, 25 and 27, and close out with a round-of-16 match on July 4,  coinciding with the nation’s semiquincentennial celebrations.

While most soccer fans will be watching the superstars like Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé grace the Linc’s new pitch, Leonard and his team will be focused on the ground, looking at how the turf holds up over the next month, with an eye on this year’s tournament as a practice run for next year’s big show.

“I think it’s going to be overall: it’s just the quality, the footing, the playability,” Leonard said when asked what factor he’s most focused on seeing. “Hopefully, we get some good feedback, which I’m sure we will, from the players. We’re excited to hear that.”

Leonard said that Michigan State and Tennessee will also be providing feedback and statistics to help assess how the turf performs.

After the Club World Cup, Leonard said the team will pull out the sod in late July, ahead of the Weeknd’s two concerts on July 30 and 31. The turf for the NFL season will be placed in early August, hopefully for another extended season with the Birds.

“Next year, after the football season — I’m hoping to be playing again in late January — and then once we get finished, it’ll be an easy process to transition back over to soccer for the international World Cup,” Leonard said.

Preparations for the Club World Cup are going on outside of the Linc as well. It was announced Tuesday that Chelsea will set up the team’s base camp at the Philadelphia Union’s training facility in Chester, while Flamengo will post up at Stockton University in Galloway, N.J. The Union will also host New Zealand club Auckland FC for a scrimmage on June 5, two days before the Major League Soccer side’s friendly against Mexican club Atlas.