What to know, how to watch<\/a><\/p>\nThe results can, literally, be seen on the field. Coppins said last week that there\u2019s been no complaints from any of the teams that had played in Houston to that point and that FIFA was pleased with how everything was going.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe preparation and the work you put in on the front end, it shows when you get into it,\u201d Coppins said last week. \u201cWe haven’t had any major curveballs.\u201d<\/p>\n
How the grass came to Houston<\/p>\n
John \u201cTrey\u201d Rogers III, the professor of turfgrass research in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is a leading expert in the field. He helped lead the project to put grass inside the Silverdome in Detroit for the 1994 World Cup. With the World Cup back in the U.S., FIFA tasked him to help again in stadiums across the country.<\/p>\n
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Houston\u2019s grass is a mixture of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass. The exact percentage breakdown \u2014 84% Kentucky bluegrass and 16% perennial ryegrass \u2014 was the result of a two-year research project, Rogers said.<\/p>\n
Mixing the two grasses together is done to be able to reap the benefits of both grasses. The ryegrass germinates quickly but doesn\u2019t regenerate well after being worn down, Rogers said, while bluegrass grows back quickly after being worn down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s no such thing as the perfect turf grass,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cNo grass can do everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass is a cool weather grass, which is why opening the roof for any of the matches in Houston was never a question. It was also grown away from Houston at a farm in Colorado with it originally being planted in the spring of 2025.<\/p>\n
Bergstrom, who is also the director of turf and grounds for the Houston Dynamo and Dash, visited the farm multiple times during the growing process. The grass at AT&T Stadium in Arlington and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta was also grown at the farm.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFrom the FIFA standpoint, the goal is uniformity across all stadiums, across all cities, all grasses,\u201d Bergstrom said in February. \u201cThey want to explain to their teams that no matter where you are sent to play, it’s going to be a great surface and it’s going to be very similar to what you’ve seen elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
A late start<\/p>\n
May 1 was the official start date of installing the new field, which Rogers said was the latest start time for any of the stadiums doing an extensive installation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reason for the late start was the rodeo as stadium preparation couldn\u2019t start until after the rodeo and rodeo cleanup was completed. Bergstrom said that FIFA wanted to start installing the turf earlier than that but everyone understood they had to work around the rodeo. which ended March 22.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know how hard and how important it was to create this plan and convince FIFA that it was going to work,\u201d Coppins said.<\/p>\n
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The process of building the field started with the bottom layer, which is best imagined like a cake. The bottom layer is plastic, followed by permavoid and a mat on top. Above those three layers is sand and the irrigation system.<\/p>\n
Then, on top, is the sod and grass.<\/p>\n
Installation of the sod started in late May when it arrived by the truckload from Denver. Coppins said there were more than 20 trucks of grass, which came in rolls.<\/p>\n
In addition to the grass, the other major key ingredient to arrive in Houston ahead of the tournament were 12 grow lights from the Netherlands. With the stadium being indoors and the roof not opening, an artificial light source is needed for the grasses to grow.<\/p>\n
Houston didn\u2019t purchase the number of grow lights to cover the full field because Canetti said it wasn\u2019t necessary. Coppins said the lights cover around two-thirds of the field and they are moved around as part of the plan to provide the light for all parts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to provide nearly all of the light required for turf grass growth and manage the moisture indoors, manage the temperature, humidity, all the weather conditions,\u201d Bergstrom said. \u201cWe have to manage all that indoors and that’s definitely different than an outdoor stadium. It’s both good and bad. We have control. We want control. But we also don’t get that free sunlight that we need to grow the grass.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u2018good quality\u2019<\/p>\n
Graham Potter\u2019s Sweden side didn\u2019t play well in their lone appearance in Houston, getting thrashed by the Netherlands two Saturdays ago.<\/p>\n
But that poor result didn\u2019t change his view of the experience inside the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody in Houston’s been amazing,\u201d Potter said at the end of his postmatch press conference. \u201cThe stadium was amazing. No problems with the pitch. No complaints from our side at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
DR Congo defender G\u00e9d\u00e9on Kalulu, who played a few minutes off the bench against Portugal on June 17, also had nice things to say about the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good quality,\u201d Kalulu said. \u201cThe stadium was unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through the first four of seven matches, Coppins said he hadn\u2019t heard a single negative review from any team that had played in Houston. The team had also developed into a routine to keep the field in good condition, which he said is a combination of irrigation, grow lights, maintenance and getting it ready for the forthcoming match.<\/p>\n
Coppins throughout the process has been quick to highlight the importance of having Bergstrom on the team.<\/p>\n
In early May, when looking at the pitch about a week after work officially started, Coppins said it made him emotional to see the progress and think about all the years Bergstrom spent working on the project to make it happen.<\/p>\n
Then after seeing the success through the start of the tournament, Coppins said he was most proud to see all of the hard work from Bergstrom and the others involved in the plan paying off at a high level.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the parts are working together,\u201d Coppins said. \u201cIt’s cliche, but it’s just nice to see a plan come together because in our line of work that isn’t always the case.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Players warm up before a FIFA World Cup between Portugal and DR Congo in Houston, Wednesday, June 17,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-360866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}