Face-lifts for FIFA: Stadiums gussied up to host World Cup games, meet soccer requirements
by Liam Griffin · The Washington TimesThe glamour of hosting the World Cup comes with the pain of extensive renovations for the 16 venues scattered across North America.
Construction crews across the continent have spent thousands of hours overhauling the stadiums — including 11 NFL arenas — to meet FIFA specifications ahead of next month’s global event.
The degree of construction has varied from venue to venue.
Most U.S. sites needed a completely fresh grass surface to replace the turf used at many American fields. Other NFL stadiums needed seats removed to provide the space required for the larger soccer pitch.
Even sites that were expressly designed with international soccer as one of the uses in mind — such as Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium and Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium — are getting minor face-lifts.
For example, Mercedes-Benz Stadium reconfigured its seating to enhance sightlines and ensure space for more cameras, for example.
“Some of the stadiums that are hosting these games weren’t originally designed to host a game with those requirements, so they’ve actually had to do some interior modifications to get ready for the games,” said Tyler Johnson of Henderson Engineers, which is working with five U.S. stadiums ahead of the World Cup.
”That could look like removing portions of the lower bolt to expand the playing surface area or having to replace artificial turf with a natural grass alternative,” he said.
Advertisement Advertisement
Many of the adjustments, such as the grass fields, are temporary. But for many venues, the world’s biggest sporting event provided an excuse to overhaul hospitality and fan experience offerings.
“Every stadium is a little bit different,” said Ryan Sickman, the global sports director for Gensler, which is contributing to the preparations for six of the 16 World Cup venues.
Under-the-radar changes
Adjusted seating and fresh fields will immediately catch fans’ eyes. But many FIFA requirements will fly under the radar. For example, stadiums must ensure VIPs have a route in and out of the stadium that prevents them from crossing paths with media or the general public.
“There’s definitely some improvements that were needed within the venues to allow those separations to happen,” Mr. Sickman said. “But also they took it as an opportunity to create some new hospitality opportunities that they can capitalize on, as part of the World Cup as well.”
Advertisement Advertisement
With the World Cup less than a month away, most of the venues have completed their overhauls to appease the FIFA powers-that-be.
Countless hours of work have also contributed, for FIFA sponsorship reasons, to temporary name changes for some of the country’s biggest stadiums and to the erasure of the previous names.
Gillette Stadium, the Massachusetts home of the NFL’s New England Patriots, is no more. The same can be said for Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and Lumen Field in Seattle.
Every stadium with a sponsored name, including all 11 U.S. venues, is required to operate under a temporary title for the upcoming World Cup. It’s a FIFA requirement designed to prevent any conflicts between a stadium’s sponsors and the sponsors of the event itself.
Advertisement Advertisement
The cosmetic change is a minor inconvenience compared to some of the more drastic adjustments in the stands.
Workers removed 4,500 tons of concrete and 5,100 cubic yards of earth from Kansas City’s stadium to ensure enough space for the wider soccer pitch and an increased on-field media presence. Officials reported that 3,500 seats were relocated in the process.
While the exact investment and labor required varies from stadium to stadium, the undertakings are substantial. Officials from AT&T Stadium in Texas said installing a new grass field required 45,000 hours of combined labor from construction crews.
The adjustments might cause fans to look twice. Kansas City’s pitch will not be centered in the stadium. Due to the construction restraints, the playing surface will be slightly off-kilter compared to the placement of the NFL field.
Advertisement Advertisement
But that’s an easy move compared to the 17,000 seats added to Toronto’s BMO Stadium ahead of the international tournament.
That added capacity will be temporary though, serviced in part by recycled stands that were used during the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
The temporary seats passed a test run when Inter Miami and superstar Lionel Messi played a game against Toronto FC, even if the stands looked like “an erector set.”
“We took a lot of heat for that publicly. People were saying, ‘Oh man, what is this thing? It’s going to fall down; it’s unsafe.’ All of that stuff,” Mr. Sickman said. “It’s perfectly fine. It’s been tested and the sightlines were amazing.”
Advertisement Advertisement
Grass vs. turf
The seating changes will catch fans’ attention, but athletes are already taking note of the playing surfaces. After years of resisting natural grass — turf is easier to care for and allows for carefree use during events like concerts — NFL stadium operators invested in grow lights and fresh water for the World Cup.
Every participating venue has already installed a new grass field based on careful instructions from World Cup organizers.
Philadelphia’s stadium brought in grass from New Jersey. In Los Angeles, the owners of SoFi Stadium installed an irrigation system and had the surface delivered from Washington state in refrigerated trucks.
Executives at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, bragged about the 45,000 hours of combined labor and 15,000 tons of materials required to install grass grown in Colorado.
The venue currently hosts a series of pink grow lights hanging from the rafters. They’re designed to ensure the playing surface is pitch-perfect next month.
“It is a first for the world to hang these grow lights,” said Ewan Hodge, FIFA’s head of pitch infrastructure. “They’re all LED grow lights, providing basically the heartbeat to the pitch to allow it to grow.”
That new grass field sits two feet above where the Cowboys’ turf typically sits. The stadium, like so many NFL venues, also removed some of its seating to accommodate the extra space needed for corner kicks and media.
Cowboys players will look on with envy.
While the NFL owners who also run World Cup stadiums trot out real grass for the visiting soccer players, football athletes dream of a day when they get the same option.
“You look at FIFA, [NFL owners] will roll out the green carpet for soccer players,” J.C. Tretter, head of the NFL players’ union, said on the “Not Just Football” podcast. “We want good, solid fields.”
“Please? @NFL,” Cowboys All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb wrote on Instagram, reposting a poll that claimed 92% of NFL athletes prefer grass over turf.
But the NFL’s players will have to negotiate for that. After the World Cup ends, the new grass surfaces will be removed just as quickly as they arrived.
“We have more flexibility with the way we handle our surface at the stadium. We have no belief that it’s any safer to play on grass,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told Pro Football Talk. “The turf, actually like many things, improves the economics of being able to play this game and our players are the biggest benefactors of all.”
Cost of doing business
The World Cup renovations have come with a steep price tag for the host venues. Mexico City’s Estadio Banorte, better known by its historic Azteca Stadium name, invested $80 million in construction, while Lumen Field in Seattle has spent $19.4 million and Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium has needed $42.5 million.
BMO Field in Toronto, home of the MLS FC Toronto and the CFL’s Argonauts, leads the financial charge with its $146 million investment.
This year’s World Cup is a novelty among international sporting events. Unlike previous iterations and Olympic competitions, no new venues were built for the tournament.
It’s become a point of pride for developers like Mr. Sickman.
Every few years, a story goes viral that depicts a former Olympic or World Cup venue that has fallen into disrepair after a lack of use.
“We’re a part of something that isn’t going to be a white elephant after a mega-event. The City of Toronto obviously needed to get BMO Field to 45,000 to be able to host a World Cup,” he said. “They don’t need 45,000 seats for run-of-the-mill Toronto FC games. Those 17,000 added seats are going away.”
But many developers and contractors have spent up to four years working on an event that culminates with millions of spectators next month. They haven’t thought too far ahead.
“There is so much focus on the events this summer that it has occupied, I would say, 99% of everybody’s prioritization throughout the last year,” Mr. Johnson said. “So conversations are a little bit quieter on what happens beyond the events of this summer.”
BMO Field’s added seats will be gone by the fall. The next steps are less clear for venues that saw concrete ripped from their lower bowls, as was the case in Kansas City and Philadelphia.
“They’re a little bit flexible on what they want to do in the future,” Mr. Johnson said. “They may end up going back and building back in with concrete, or that may utilize the temporary seating as a little bit more of a long-term play until they can get that next project underway.”
The World Cup begins on June 11.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
Contact the author
Liam Griffin
Follow author updates Follow Click to follow. Manage followed authors