Preparing The Vancouver World Cup Pitch A Process In Planning

BusinessSportsMoneyPreparing The Vancouver World Cup Pitch A Process In PlanningByTim Newcomb,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Tim Newcomb covers tennis gear/business, stadiums and shoe tech.Follow AuthorJun 13, 2026, 12:00pm EDTThe specially grown BC Place Vancouver Stadium pitch for World Cup 2026.FIFA The grass carpeting BC Place Vancouver Stadium for World Cup 2026 has grown since spring 2025. The planning for the specially designed sod system? That’s been since 2022. It all becomes reality when Australia and Turkey open play at one of two Cascadia-area venues on Saturday before Canada’s national team comes to town for two straight contests. “We are preparing for game one, but already looking at games two, three, four, five, six and seven,” Dale Frith, FIFA’s venue pitch manager for BC Place Vancouver, tells me. “There is always a big build up to the first game and after the games we will be fixing up the pitch, repairing any scars and just cleaning up and getting ready to go for the next one.” Alan Ferguson, FIFA’s head of pitches, previously told me he knew making a consistent field for World Cup 2026 was the biggest challenge. So in June 2022, FIFA’s Pitch Management Team implemented a research project, partnering with the University of Tennessee and Michigan State University, to help create a uniform pitch across three times zones, three countries and three unique climatic regions. The biggest move was FIFA creating shallow-stitching technology, enabling grass pitches no matter the existing surface. In Vancouver, that means over top the concrete floor and existing artificial turf, there’s thin layers of thousands of tons of material. First came a membrane, then a drainage layer, a ventilation system with irrigation and a root zone in a sand and soil mixture. It was all rolled and consolidated before the sod—or turf—was laid. Every bit of it was sourced in Canada, with the grass grown at a local turf farm, Abbo...