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Lincoln Financial Field’s transition to “Philadelphia Stadium” is almost complete ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with the new grass for the tournament laid down and its usual branded signage being covered up.
“Friday will start FIFA’s exclusive window here at the stadium,” said Frank Gumienny, chief operating officer of the Eagles. “Everything will ramp up from now up until June 14th.”
The Eagles home stadium will host six of the 104 games of the tournament, including a group stage game on Juneteenth and a round of 16 knockout game on the Fourth of July. The tournament kicks off in Mexico City on June 11, but Philly’s first game is on June 14, between Ivory Coast and Ecuador.
Meg Kane, Philadelphia’s host city executive, said FIFA hasn’t provided its plans about a half time show on the field for July 4 of any other game, yet.
Developing a consistent playing surface for 16 venues across three distinct climate zones that would all meet FIFA’s regulations and withstand up to nine games of competition wasn’t an easy task. In a detailed essay for The Conversation, the researchers at the University of Tennessee and Michigan State University said “it seemed like an impossible challenge at first.”
Five years of research led the researchers to come up with three different grass options.
“It’s wild to think that this is all necessary, but the length of the tournament and unique stadium environments call for innovation,” the researchers wrote.
Philly’s grass changes from Bermuda grass mixed with some artificial grass to a blend of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass mixture, mowed at 22 millimeters and knitted together with a HERO Hybrid Grass fibre construction that keeps all the natural grass together.
The grass was installed between May 4 and 5. It was grown and brought in from Tuckahoe Turf Farms in Hammonton, N.J. Penn State and Rutgers University also helped in its development, Tony Leonard, the Eagles’ vice president of grounds, said. The Linc got a first stab at installing and maintaining the playing surface last summer for the FIFA Club World Cup.
“We hosted eight [games], almost every other day, and I think we came through pretty well.” Leonard said.
Gumienny was less humble about the praise that Leonard and his team received after the Club World Cup.
“I’m not going to say it if he’s too close, but Tony’s the best in the league,” he said. “FIFA has relied on him, uses his knowledge and has asked him a lot of questions. So he’s in some ways consulting FIFA.”
Soccer’s ‘green carpet’
The great lengths to bring in and maintain the World Cup grass at NFL stadiums, particularly those that default to artificial turf, has drawn some envy from the NFL Player’s Association.
“[NFL owners will] roll out the ‘green carpet’ for soccer players, and that’s become the norm … and those players will not play if it’s not that,” JC Tretter, NFLPA executive director and former player, said on Cam Heyward’s “Not Just Football” show this month.
The Eagles already use natural grass instead of turf, so much of that ire isn’t cast on their field. Still, Leonard said the Linc’s groundskeeping team has picked up some ways to improve how they maintain the football grass from the soccer world.
“We use walk-behind mowers,” Leonard said. “I know it sounds crazy when you’re mowing over two acres of grass, but we have these walk-behind mowers that we use for cleanup after games and then we use them before games, even to help clean some things out with the surface and just to clean up debris.”
To meet FIFA’s stadium requirements, seats were also removed to extend the corners of the field, 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 doesn’t decrease the stadium’s capacity too much.
So long, Lincoln Financial
Soccer’s governing body also has strict guidelines on the visibility of sponsors that aren’t their own — hence the stadium’s name change this summer. So signs representing Lincoln Financial and other brands tied to the Birds had to be covered. Even the signage on the roof.
“FIFA has a whole host of World Cup sponsors and making sure that they are prominently displayed,” Gumienny said.
He did say that the championship banners and other team-specific signage that doesn’t get in the way of FIFA’s own branding plans will stay though.
The costs of all of these adjustments have been jointly shared by the Eagles, Philly’s host committee and FIFA. Gumienny and Kane both said costs have been fairly minimal so far, compared to the other tournament venues.
“I would say under $10 million would be where we are for all of the stadium modifications coming together,” said Kane, adding a caveat that the final costs are still being worked out. “I think compared to some of the other host cities that had to do $25- 30 million in renovations, we’ve been in excellent shape. But that is a credit to the Philadelphia Eagles who did an incredible $130 million renovation of the stadium in 2019.”
Be sure to check out Billy Penn’s guide to the World Cup games in Philly, which offers a crash course in what teams and players you’ll likely see this summer, how you can watch the games and which local soccer players could make the United States team for the competition. That 26-man roster will be announced May 26, 2026, in New York City.
