The world’s best soccer clubs from each continent are headed to America for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, where they’ll be competing on some seriously high-tech grass. So what’s the secret behind these perfect green fields that will welcome the best soccer clubs from each continent?
And can your own lawn take some lessons from these pro setups?
Most of us don’t think twice about stadium grass, but there is science happening under those cleats. These 12 fields need to be able to handle sharp cuts and quick turns and still look perfect for TV cameras and millions of fans watching around the world.
Stadiums and Their Grass Choices (Quick Guide)
| Stadium | 2025 Club World Cup Surface | Permanent Surface |
| Mercedes-Benz (Atlanta) | Natural grass placed over FieldTurf CORE | FieldTurf CORE |
| Bank of America (Charlotte) | Temporary natural grass | FieldTurf Vertex CORE |
| TQL (Cincinnati) | Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass | Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass |
| Rose Bowl (Pasadena) | Bermuda Tahoma/Ryegrass blend | Bermuda Tahoma/Ryegrass blend |
| Hard Rock (Miami) | Tifway 419 Bermudagrass | Tifway 419 Bermudagrass |
| GEODIS Park (Nashville) | Latitude 36 Bermudagrass | Latitude 36 Bermudagrass |
| MetLife (New Jersey) | Temporary hybrid | FieldTurf CORE artificial turf |
| Camping World (Orlando) | AstroTurf RootZone 3D3 Trionic Blend 60 | AstroTurf RootZone 3D3 Trionic Blend 60 |
| Inter&Co (Orlando) | Latitude 36 Bermudagrass | Latitude 36 Bermudagrass |
| Lincoln Financial (Philadelphia) | Kentucky bluegrass | Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass |
| Lumen Field (Seattle) | Temporary hybrid | FieldTurf Revolution 360 |
| Audi Field (Washington, DC) | NorthBridge Bermudagrass | NorthBridge Bermudagrass |
The Stadiums and Their Playing Surfaces
The 2025 Club World Cup will use a dozen venues across the United States, each with its own unique approach to turf management. The first match is June 14.
To reduce differences in the surface of the soccer fields, FIFA teamed with turf scientists at Michigan State University and the University of Tennessee to develop consistent fields for the hosting stadiums, The Miami Herald reported in April.
Sod farmers at the universities have been developing the ideal blend of grass for both outdoor stadiums and indoor stadiums. Artificial turf at eight U.S. stadiums will be replaced by natural grass for the two tournaments, transported by refrigerated trucks.
Let’s break down what’s happening beneath those cleats.
See the slideshow below for details about the grass at each stadium:
When Club World Cup soccer players take to Mercedes-Benz Stadium they may have a spring in their step – but hopefully not the “trampoline effect” Copa America players experienced in 2023.
Different surfaces that will sit below the grass have been tested to try to eliminate the bounciness that could sometimes be seen during the Copa America, Manolo Zubiria, chief tournament officer, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
For the Copa America matches, Mercedes-Benz Stadium put down rolls of a type of Bermuda grass on flooring over the existing artificial turf. The “lay-and-play” grass pitch was installed just 48 hours before its first game, Forbes notes.
For the Club World Cup matches, the grass will be laid similar to how it was during Copa America, but with a longer 11-day period to allow it to bed in, Vice President of Stadium Operations Adam Fullerton told Forbes.
Photo Credit: BullDawg2021 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0
Bank of America Stadium, a fixture in Charlotte since 1996, made the controversial switch from natural grass to FieldTurf artificial turf in 2021. The decision came down to pragmatism: With the Panthers, Charlotte FC, college football, and a packed concert schedule, the natural grass just couldn’t keep up.
But it will be back to natural grass – temporarily – for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup matches at Bank of America Stadium.
The grass beneath the world’s best soccer players won’t be any ordinary grass. FIFA President Gianni Infantino, during a visit to the Queen City in April, said the grass will be a specially designed one produced in conjunction with a “pitch research project” FIFA is sponsoring at both the University of Tennessee and Michigan State.
“The quality of the game depends on the quality of the grass,” Infantino told The Charlotte Business Journal.
Photo Credit: HangingCurve / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
TQL Stadium is a great example of turf innovation. Originally opened with a hybrid ryegrass system, the field was replaced in 2024 with Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass over nearly 400 tons of sand for improved drainage and durability.
The sod, shipped in refrigerated trucks from New Jersey’s Tuckahoe Turf Farm, is the same variety destined for the 2026 World Cup final at MetLife Stadium. Head groundskeeper Mitch Litz and his crew “baby” the grass with sprayable nutrients and careful watering to help it recover from heavy use.
“Spraying nutrients on top so the plant will absorb that overnight…just gives it a little extra energy to do what we want it to do. Sprout roots and grow,” Litz said in an article on the FC Cincinnati website. The stadium also includes the AirPAT system, a high-tech rootzone management system that offers total control over moisture and aeration.
Photo Credit: Cornfield948 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
Rose Bowl’s legendary grass prospers under field superintendent Miguel Yepez, who has led maintenance since 2020. A substitute for previous attempts at growing Kentucky bluegrass, the field now is a blend of Bermuda Tahoma grass and Ryegrass, a hybrid chosen for heat tolerance, quick repair, and year-round hardness in Pasadena’s weather.
The resilient blend stands up to the stadium’s punishing schedule of football games (including FIFA Club World Cup 2025), concerts, and other events. Daily maintenance is required: Yepez’s team mows the grass to a ⅜-inch height using Toro Reelmaster equipment so the surface is as even as synthetic turf.
“If the turf stops growing, it won’t recover from the stress of events,” Yepez told TORO Grounds for Success. The maintenance schedule requires bi-weekly GRIGG fertilization treatments, calibrated by monthly laboratory tests of soil and clippings to maximize N-P-K.
Photo Credit: Ted Eytan / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
Hard Rock Stadium features a Tifway 419 Bermuda grass, grown at the team’s South Florida Sod Farm. The type of grass thrives in heat and humidity and is cared for by head groundskeeper Thomas Wilson, who has overseen the field through NFL, college football, and international soccer for more than two decades.
For the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, the stadium will keep its existing Tifway 419, with an SubAir Sport System that allows 24/7 monitoring of subsoil conditions and remote adjustments of drainage and aeration.
“There will always be challenges, we just have to face them, deal with it, and complete them,” Wilson says on his LinkedIn profile.
Fun fact: The Dolphins’ sod farm ensures fresh turf is always available, a luxury most venues lack.
Photo Credit: Gatorfan252525 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
GEODIS Park, home of Nashville SC, features Latitude 36 Bermudagrass, an MLS variety chosen for its durability and recovery. Groundsman Adam Portenier, in an interview with Sod Solutions Professionals, credits his mentor, Allen Reed, with teaching him the care regimen that gets the grass into prime condition:
“It’s just a very aggressive grass. It has a good color… but the ability to handle wear was my highest priority,” Portenier said. The sod, grown and installed by Precision Turf, thrived quickly. “Within two weeks, they were pushing 4.5- to 5-inch roots,” he added.
Players compliment the field’s smoothness and consistency, and it’s a league favorite among MLS stadiums. GEODIS Park will be hosting three group-stage matches of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup on its existing Latitude 36 turf, which is FIFA-compliant for elite tournaments.
Photo Credit: cornfield948 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
MetLife Stadium isn’t playing around when it comes to field surfaces. Home to both the Giants and Jets, they upgraded to FieldTurf CORE in 2023, a multilayer dual-polymer synthetic turf that does a better job mimicking natural grass while cutting down on injuries.
For the 2025 Club World Cup, MetLife is going through a complete surface overhaul.
MetLife is getting a temporary cool-season hybrid grass, likely a Kentucky bluegrass and ryegrass blend that’s been specifically developed with the University of Tennessee and Michigan State to handle New Jersey’s finicky climate.
Photo Credit: Dibumartinez23 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Camping World Stadium rocks a next-level artificial turf system. The stadium has AstroTurf RootZone 3D3 Trionic Blend 60 with a Brock SP17 shock pad underneath and organic BrockFILL infill on top.
The turf is so good that FIFA gave it their Quality Pro rating, and on this turf, the 2025 Club World Cup games will be played.
What makes their system special is how the organic infill keeps the field cooler while giving players the grip and shock absorption they’d expect from real grass. As Ronnie Pascale from Brock USA says: “[It’s] the most state-of-the-art synthetic turf playing surface.”
Photo Credit: Chris Gent / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0
Inter&Co Stadium gives Orlando City SC and the Orlando Pride a true soccer home with its Latitude 36 Bermudagrass field. The venue’s design puts fans right on top of the action with a 360-degree lower bowl and “The Wall,” North America’s first safe-standing section that cranks up the home crowd noise.
They built the field 8 feet below street level, which helps water drain away quickly and creates a bowl-like feel that traps sound. This natural grass surface will host a series of 2025 FIFA Club World Cup matches. The Latitude 36 grass handles Florida heat well and bounces back fast after heavy usage, perfect for tournament play.
Photo Credit: timoteeburns / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
Lincoln Financial Field is one of the few NFL stadiums to use a hybrid surface: a blend of Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass for the NFL season and Kentucky bluegrass for international soccer, Premier League matches, and the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
Tony Leonard, the Eagles’ VP of Grounds, leads a specialized team that spends up to 500 hours a week prepping the field for big games.
The field sits atop a deep sand and gravel base with 28 miles of biothermal heat piping that prevents ice and snow buildup and a sub-air system for drainage to handle the worst downpours. For FIFA events like the 2025 Club World Cup, the stadium’s Kentucky bluegrass will provide a familiar surface for global teams, grown to 1-inch height for optimal playability.
Photo Credit: Betp at French Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
Lumen Field is unique among Club World Cup venues. It replaced its FieldTurf Revolution 360 artificial turf with a temporary natural grass surface for the 2025 tournament. The stadium’s rainy, cool Pacific Northwest climate and heavy use by both the Seahawks and Sounders make permanent natural grass a tough sell.
For the Club World Cup, FIFA-required natural grass will be grown in collaboration with the University of Tennessee and Michigan State, using a cool-season blend of bluegrass and ryegrass tailored to Seattle’s climate.
Fun Fact: Lumen Field’s turf is replaced every few years to maintain top performance, and the stadium has hosted everything from NFL playoffs to MLS Cups and international friendlies.
Photo Credit: PCN02WPS / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Audi Field features NorthBridge Bermudagrass, chosen for its strength and ability to handle DC’s transitional climate. The rootzone is a 97% USGA sand mix with 3% Dakota Peat that drains well while keeping roots happy.
The grounds staff, led by Brandon Porch, uses grow lights to fight shade issues and maintains a tight schedule of aeration, mowing, and fertilizing. “We love growing grass!” is the staff’s unofficial motto, and it certainly finds expression in the quality and playability of the field.
Photo Credit: PCN02WPS / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
How Stadium Groundskeepers Keep the Grass Pristine
You might think stadiums have some kind of secret ingredient. That secret is actually just long hours, around-the-clock attention, and a few high-tech tricks.
- Soil prep: Some stadiums use sand-based root zones to drain water, topped with GPS-guided layers of sand to provide perfect leveling.
- Lighting: Retractable roofs and grow lights supplement the sunlight, especially for domed stadiums.
- Aeration and topdressing: Regular aeration keeps roots healthy and soil loose. Topdressing with sand smooths the surface and helps with drainage.
- Mowing: Stadium grass is mowed 2-3 times a week, sometimes daily before any major matches, to keep it short and even.
- Divot repair: Grounds crews walk the field after each match, replacing divots by hand and brushing up the grass.
- Rest and rotation: Stadiums rotate use, limit non-soccer events, and sometimes even “rest” the field to give it time to recover.
As Robert Heggie said for TURF&REC, “What you think is common sense to a turf manager isn’t common sense to everyone else.” It’s a science, but it’s also an art.
Oh, and how much does it cost a stadium to switch from artificial turf to natural grass ahead of next year’s World Cup 2026 matches?
The preliminary estimate at Mercedes-Benz Stadium is about $2 million, according to Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That includes “installing an underground irrigation system and preparing a sub-surface for the sod.”
What About Your Yard? Can You Get ‘Stadium Quality’ Grass at Home?
Short answer: Sort of. The same grass types used in stadiums (perennial ryegrass, Bermuda grass, Kentucky bluegrass) are widely available for home lawns. But don’t expect to roll out a World Cup pitch overnight.
Here are the pros and cons of stadium grass types for home lawns:
Perennial Ryegrass
- Pros: Fast germination, great for overseeding, handles wear.
- Cons: Needs frequent mowing, can get patchy in heat.
Bermudagrass
- Pros: Drought-tolerant, thrives in sun, recovers quickly.
- Cons: Goes dormant and brown in winter, needs full sun.
Kentucky Bluegrass
- Pros: Lush, dense, self-repairing.
- Cons: Needs more water, struggles in extreme heat.
Hybrid Systems
- Pros: Ultimate durability.
- Cons: Costly, requires pro installation, not practical for most homes.
If you have children, pets, or you just prefer to kick the ball around, opt for durability. Ryegrass is a good choice for cool climates, and Bermuda for warm climates. Overseed in fall and spring to keep things thick. And don’t forget, even the best grass needs good soil, regular mowing, and a bit of TLC.
Beyond the Final Whistle
The grass at these stadiums is a marvel of science, sweat, and a tiny pinch of obsession. Groundskeepers balance the demands of players, coaches, weather, and event planners daily. And that’s only because someone’s working around the clock behind the scenes.
Want your own lawn to survive summer soccer, barbecues, or just daily life? Take a lesson from the pros: Plant grass that actually likes your climate, don’t cut corners on soil preparation, and get your hands dirty with a rake or aerator every now and then.
As Robert Heggie said, “Never stop learning.” Whether managing a stadium or simply your own front yard, there’s always some new trick to try and always another game to play.
More from LawnStarter:
- U.S. Stadiums Switch to Grass for FIFA World Cup 2026
- Hey, Ted Lasso, keep off the soccer grass!
- How Austin FC chose its ‘green grass’ soccer field
Main Image Credits:
Background: Pexels
FIFA Club World cup trophy: Bahbouhe / Wikimedia Commons / CC0 1.0
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