The Spartan Science Behind the World Cup
MSU researchers are helping engineer the playing surfaces for soccer's biggest tournament
May 26, 2026
When John "Trey" Rogers III wakes up in the middle of the night, it's often because he's thinking about soccer fields. Not just any fields — the ones that will host the FIFA World Cup 2026.
For the past five years, the Michigan State University professor of turfgrass research has been consumed by a problem few people ever think about but one that will be tested on the world's biggest stage. How do you make turfgrass — real, living grass carefully grown and managed for elite play — perform consistently in every stadium across vastly different climates?
"Consistency at the World Cup isn't accidental — it's engineered from the ground up," Rogers says. "To make sure 16 different stadiums in three different climates play the same, we had to control everything from the exact mix of grasses, how the surface is built and reinforced, and the turf and soil specifications so the field is ready to perform and recover after every match."
For Rogers, the challenge is both new and familiar.
A challenge decades in the making
More than 30 years ago, Rogers faced a similar question while helping prepare the indoor field at the Pontiac Silverdome for the 1994 World Cup, a venue with no natural sunlight and no precedent for growing grass indoors.
"We were trying things that hadn't been tried before," Rogers says.
The work required creativity, experimentation and a willingness to fail — qualities that would come to define Rogers' career and Michigan State's turfgrass program, widely regarded as a global leader in the field.
It also sparked something unexpected. An undergraduate student working on that project, John Sorochan, was inspired by the challenge. Years later, after building his own career in turfgrass science at the University of Tennessee, Sorochan would receive a call from FIFA about the 2026 World Cup — and his next call was to Rogers.
More than three decades after creating the turf for the Silverdome, they were back at it again.
One tournament, 16 stadiums
The FIFA World Cup 2026 will be the largest in history, spanning 16 stadiums across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Some are open-air venues exposed to heat, rain and shifting weather. Others are domed or rely on artificial turf that must be temporarily converted to natural grass.
Turfgrass refers to real, living grass — not artificial turf — that is carefully selected, grown and managed to create high-performance playing surfaces. For events like the FIFA World Cup, turfgrass is engineered for consistency, durability and recovery, ensuring that fields in different stadiums and climates provide the same ball movement, footing and performance of play at the highest level of the game.
The distances alone are staggering, with sod traveling hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles from specialized farms to stadiums on tight timelines.
"We're breaking new ground. Nothing at this scale has ever been attempted." — Trey Rogers, Professor of Turfgrass Research
And yet, to the players, it's not those details that matter, but the final product.
"The goal is consistency," Rogers says. "Every field has to feel the same to these world-class athletes."
That means the surface must hold up under elite play and meet strict performance standards, whether it's the first match of the tournament or the final.
"We're breaking new ground," Rogers says. "Nothing at this scale has ever been attempted."