As FIFA Men's World Cup approaches, Seattle Stadium turf 'ready to go'

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on Jun 10, 2026

Published in Soccer

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SEATTLE — David Roberts looked over his shoulder to the carpet of green sod that is the centerpiece to all the bustle happened around Lumen Field with the FIFA Men’s World Cup less than a week away from arriving in Seattle.

“We’re at a point now where if I was told, ‘Oh, by the way we need to switch a game and come in here,’ we’re ready to go,” Roberts said on Wednesday.

Roberts is the pitch venue manager for the grass field inside what will be known as Seattle Stadium for the next four weeks. His job is making sure between now and July 6 that his team of 20 workers can keep the temporary grass field inside the stadium playable to the high standards demanded of a World Cup.

While much of the stadium formerly known as Lumen was still in the final stages of preparations five days out from the first match between Belgium and Egypt, there was confidence that at least the field itself is more than ready for the six matches to come.

“The real highlight of the show is our grass field,” FIFA venue operations director Anthony Malandra said.

The field has received as much attention as any other aspect of the changes made at the stadium before hosting the tournament. It’s been a grass field for several months now after the installation process started in late winter. The artificial turf used by the Seahawks, Sounders and Reign has been buried underneath around 18 inches of base materials, irrigation and sod. The grass field was used beginning in early April when the U.S. Women’s national team faced Japan in a friendly and concluded with the Sounders match against LA Galaxy on May 16.

Roberts said in the time since that final Sounders match on the field, plastic fibers have been added to the grass in an effort to reinforce the strength of the field. It’s a process that was done at nearly every venue for the tournament.

One aspect Roberts said was special to Seattle was installation of a vacuum system that pulls water out of the root zone in an effort to speed up drainage on the chance of heavy or extensive rain. But rain doesn’t seem to be the concern in the forecast right now. Instead, it’s heat with temperatures for next Monday’s opening match expected in the mid-80s. Instead of pulling water out, Roberts and his crew will be giving the field a little more irrigation this weekend.

While most of the games being played in Seattle have several days in between matches, Roberts indicated that the turnaround between the June 24 match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Qatar and the June 26 match between Iran and Egypt will take some work for his team in getting the field prepared.

“It’s quite intense. Time is our biggest friend and can be our worst enemy as well,” Roberts said.

This is Roberts’ second time working at the stadium. He previously worked overseeing field management at Liverpool. He was in Seattle a year ago for the Club World Cup and said this surface being used this year is far superior to the temporary field used a year ago.

“For most of the players that have played certainly across Europe and many parts of the world, they will have played on very, very similar surfaces to this,” Roberts said.

The field and the locker rooms are the two areas players will spend most of their time, and the latter has received a face-lift, too. The locker rooms used for MLS/NWSL matches are the ones that will be used for the World Cup. Each has been remodeled with World Cup signage, colors and logos, and will have logos for the specific countries added in the days before the matches.

Still, other parts of the venue remain in the final stages of preparations.

Structures were still being built as part of the fan zone in what is normally the north parking lot of the stadium. Hallways were lined with cardboard boxes of merchandise still to be opened and distributed into shops and kiosks around the stadium.

Inside the connected event center, a large hospitality area that can hold up to 4,000 fans on match days was getting the finishing touches of tables built, carpet laid down and seating arranged. The prevailing sound in areas of the stadium was hammers and saws, but in a few days will be replaced by cheering fans.

Throughout the stadium, any corporate sponsorship signage that isn’t a FIFA sponsor has now been covered. There are many signs and logos that simply say “Field” with the “Lumen” part covered. That goes for everything from directional signage inside the venue to the name of the stadium on top of the roof.

“We are on schedule,” Malandra said. “We’re really excited and we’re going to be ready for Monday.”

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