Arlington (United States) (AFP) – Dangling above field level at the biggest stadium of the 2026 World Cup, eighteen giant metal arms flood a newly laid grass pitch in an eerie pink glow. The mission: make sure the turf at the AT&T Stadium is match-ready — and controversy free — by the time the tournament kicks off.
The 94,000-capacity venue in Arlington, Texas, the home of the Dallas Cowboys NFL team, will host more matches than any other venue during the World Cup, including group games involving Lionel Messi’s Argentina and Harry Kane’s England, as well as a semi-final. Like other repurposed NFL stadia being used at the World Cup, organizers have replaced the synthetic turf with fresh grass. A specially engineered natural grass pitch was laid last Tuesday, some 60 centimeters above the Cowboys’ normal playing surface.
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By Thursday, the seams between each individual roll of turf — each measuring 1.2 meters wide and 15 meters long — were still clearly visible. AT&T Stadium general manager Tod Martin is confident, though, that the surface will be in pristine condition by the time the Netherlands face Japan in the first game at the venue on June 14.
– Copa controversy –
“Over the next few days and weeks, those will absolutely go away as that grass gets established and then just the grooming, the maintenance continues,” Martin said. “By the time match day one gets here, it’ll just be completely flush.” The elaborate efforts to ensure perfect pitches at the World Cup come two years after playing surfaces at the Copa America held in the United States faced sharp criticism. Peru coach Jorge Fossati said the hastily laid grass pitch at the AT&T Stadium at the Copa in 2024 may have contributed to an Achilles injury suffered by defender Luis Advincula. “It came out of nowhere,” Fossati said at the time. “I realize that this is a grass field today but it’s not normal grass.”
Similar criticism was leveled at the surface used at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2024, another venue which will feature prominently at the World Cup. “You’re playing on a football field, with laid grass that’s all patchy and it breaks up every step you take — it’s frustrating,” USA midfielder Weston McKennie said at the time.
– Nothing to chance –
In Dallas, stadium chiefs are leaving nothing to chance as they aim to avoid a repeat of the Copa America controversies. Martin says some 45,000 man hours were used to install the new pitch, which was made up of a Kentucky ryegrass blend of sod grown in Colorado before being transported to Texas on 24 refrigeration trucks. A full irrigation system will ensure the surface is properly watered, while the pitch will also be reinforced with plastic fibers ahead of the World Cup.
The metal arms suspended from the roof of the stadium and lowered above the pitch house grow lights that bathe the grass in a striking pink, but more importantly, boost photosynthesis. Martin devised the system after visiting Wembley Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, where similar pitch maintenance techniques are in place. “We specifically went to Wembley and Tottenham and talked with those guys …and it was a sight to see for sure,” Martin said. Wembley’s grow lights are mounted on wheeled structures rolled onto the pitch, while Tottenham’s system is raised hydraulically from the sidelines. Dallas’s set-up uses a similar technique, with frames suspended from the ceiling that can be raised. Ewen Hodge, FIFA’s Head of Pitch Infrastructure, described the Dallas set-up as a “very innovative step forward by the stadium.”
© 2024 AFP
