Preparing The Vancouver World Cup Pitch A Process In Planning

The 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, Abbotsford’s Bos Seed Farm, roughly 50 miles from the stadium.

Chris May, BC Place general manager, tells me the field is more than a pitch, “it’s a highly technical system with automatic irrigation, layered drainage, integrated vacuum and ventilation and grow lights.”

The installation took roughly two weeks, requiring coordination to bring in the material needed at the downtown stadium.

The result features an engineered mix of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass, developed to thrive in Vancouver, with poly-based synthetic fibers woven in. Frith says there’s roughly a 5% coverage of the hybrid fiber, making it “still very much a grass pitch that has the hybrid element.”

For Vancouver, the ryegrass takes center stage, better suited to the Vancouver climate (southern stadiums may go heavier in Kentucky bluegrass). Frith says they will add ryegrass seed every week to keep the turf strong. The synthetic material helps with durability.

The daily maintenance of the pitch includes a mix of natural sunlight—when available—and grow lights. BC Place features a retractable roof, which allows for natural sunlight on roughly 65% of the pitch, with the southwest corner shaded and requiring grow light coverage. “Having the roof open makes a massive difference in here,” Frith says from the venue. “Today has a lot fresher feel with the roof being open.” The roof will close for games and open, as the weather allows, between events.

When the roof closes, the grow lights remain on the field, running for 16 hours per day to mimic a full day of sunshine, exactly what the plant is used to and desires. “The batteries of the plant get charged up in those 16 hours,” Frith says.

The field crew tests the pitch daily for hardness, traction and moisture levels. Based on testing, the team determines how much water the turf receives. All watering comes from the in-pitch irrigation system. During the early maintenance period, Frith says they kept the water levels lower to encourage the development of the grass and roots and as they moved toward games they built moisture levels up. Watering comes immediately following the final cutting the day before a game.

Crews have windows on match day of when they can water, including before kickoff, at hydration breaks and halftime, keeping the grass wet during play—a FIFA requirement—to ensure the ball rolls smoothy. The closed roof also helps hold moisture in.

The focus on turf comes years in the making—and growing—all to ensure 90-minute stretches of readiness while the world watches.