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The 2026 World Cup is when all the soccer nerds in your life will bombard you with armchair game analysis and hopefully fun factoids about “the beautiful game.”
Like, did you know that Brazilian legend Pelé coined the phrase “the beautiful game?”
Whatever public space you go to catch the game — sorry, matches — you’ve probably already heard someone dropping knowledge about what one team is doing wrong tactically, how a country has fared in previous World Cups, or whether Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest player of all time.
You likely won’t hear most people talking about how much work went into the grass on the 16 World Cup fields — sorry, pitches.
Keith Salmon, director of sports turf at Tuckahoe Turf Farms in Hammonton, N.J., isn’t most people.
He’s spent the last four years working with FIFA, the Philadelphia Eagles and turfgrass researchers from the Michigan State University and the University of Tennessee, to bring the grass that is being played on in Philadelphia and Boston’s stadiums.
Salmon said he and his team will be watching the games, but their attention won’t be too focused on the teams and players, like everyone else.
“We’re really going to be rooting for the grass, first and foremost,” he said.
For the World Cup, Philly’s grass changed from a mix of Bermuda and artificial grass that the Eagles play on 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.
Eagles Vice President of Grounds Tony Leonard said this changes the feel of the grass to better account for ball roll and speed, as well as footing. The grass used for NFL games had more body to it to soften bigger football players’ repeated falls.
The field at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., got a similar turf for its seven World Cup games.
Big league experience
Tuckahoe already had plenty of experience bringing grass to the nation’s big leagues. The farm’s client list includes several NFL teams, including the Eagles, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. Their baseball portfolio has the New York Yankess and the Boston Red Sox. Even soccer was also ground they had already trodden, with the Philadelphia Union’s stadium and practice facilities, and several other east coast Major League Soccer teams.
Salmon said that when Tuckahoe joined the project over four years ago it very quickly turned into visits to testing centers and preparing the space and infrastructure needed for the project. Once the grass was growing, there were monthly calls with FIFA and the accredited universities – which also included Penn State and Rutgers University — as well as weekly visits from Leonard’s grounds team at the Eagles.
The process came with a dress rehearsal last summer when the farm provided the grass for the FIFA Club World Cup.
“That was a great experience for us in growing the grass here at the farm, making sure we have everything we need to properly harvest it, transport it over there and get it installed just as we do with our normal grass and sports field grass,” Salmon said.
The challenge with the World Cup was working to have a playing surface that felt the same across all 16 of the host city fields, which were up to 3,100 miles apart and span three different climatic zones. Making sure Miami’s grass felt the same as Guadalajara’s and Toronto meant using different types and blends that work with each region’s weather conditions. It also had to cope with the games, ceremonies of the tournament, and be able to grow successfully in time for the summer soccer.
Fortunately, the Club World Cup was a success on the grass front, so the main feedback to keep it consistent. The grass was also brought in a couple of weeks earlier.
“Going into the the World Cup, we knew that the stadiums would be going all out in a sense of making sure that there’s a full root zone in there, subsurface vacuum ventilation, underground irrigation, which really helps the the the cause and and really will help the grass shine even more than than it already does,” Salmon said.
If anything is off with the field, Salmon said that the general public probably wouldn’t notice. Only the players and groundskeeper will be able to tell. The grass is like the soccer ball the players are kicking around, unless it’s “2010 Jabulani” ball bad, fans won’t pay it any mind.
And team feedback on this tournament has already been great so far.
“We’re used to large stadiums, but when we stepped on the pitch, we were very impressed and happy with the quality of the pitch, and we can’t wait to get started,” said Ivory Coast head coach Emerse Fae before his side’s first match in Philly, a 1-nil win over Ecuador.
Salmon said the biggest concern isn’t the players or performers tearing it up, or a stray flare burning a hole in the grass. It’s Mother Nature. The torrential downpour that followed Philly’s opening game isn’t ideal, but Salmon said it’s not something that Leonard and his team wouldn’t be prepared to deal with.
Communication between Tuckahoe Farms and FIFA has tapered off since the grass was transferred to the stadiums, but Salmon said that his team are “ready to go” if anything should happen to the grass at the stadiums.
Till then, Salmon said the Tuckahoe team will return to their current projects. There is some time to watch the games and reveal how the years of work have turned out, whether it’s at a game, in a bar, or sitting at home on a recliner with a cold beer.
“We are extremely excited to be able to see something on television, something that the whole world is watching and just know that you had a small small part in that,” he said.
