FIFA’s natural grass transformation of SoFi Stadium and six other NFL stadiums with artificial surfaces for this summer’s World Cup reignited the debate over grass versus synthetic turf.
Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis long ago took a side in the fight.
“I just always felt that football should be played on grass,” Davis told The Times. “That’s for safety purposes, No. 1. I want it to look like a game was played even if it’s an indoor field. You see grass stains and everything else. I wasn’t going to a stadium without it being grass once I knew that capability was there. Obviously, it added a lot of cost, but it’s worth it.”
FIFA spent millions to lay new grass atop all 11 NFL stadiums and most of the other five stadiums that hosted World Cup games in Mexico and Canada — and some NFL players see this summer’s temporary changeover as the league’s touch-grass moment.
“We’ve made it clear that we prefer grass fields,” San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle said in a statement issued by the players’ association. “We know it’s better on our bodies, and clearly, we know it’s possible based on everything that went into putting down grass fields for the World Cup at each stadium.”
All the NFL stadiums will go back to the surfaces they used before the U.S. co-hosted the World Cup, including New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, which garnered an “F-minus” rating, and Seattle’s Lumen Field, which received an “F,” in the most recent NFLPA survey. SoFi received a “C,” a full grade higher than the average response for artificial turf fields.
“I find a lot of confidence in the fact that the NFL and the NFL Players Assn. have a tremendous working group and we’re working toward improved surfaces,” NFL Field Director Nick Pappas told The Times. “Their voice is represented in everything that we do, because nothing on the field side of our work is done without the voice of the union. I see the comments. I hear comments. I hear anecdotal feedback. I just know that we’ve got a trusted process that has been working. We’ve seen improvement.”
Statistically over the last three NFL seasons, there’s been no significant difference in injury rates on grass and artificial turf. That hasn’t halted players and their union from expressing an affinity for grass fields. NFLPA Executive Director JC Tretter recently mentioned a 2024 poll of 1,700 players that found 92% of players prefer grass over artificial turf.
So, what would it cost to turn the 14 NFL stadiums that use artificial turf into grass fields? The systems used by the Raiders and Arizona Cardinals that roll grass in and out of their domed stadiums cost millions and take up more than an acre, land that could be better monetized by parking or other amenities.
An approach similar to what FIFA implemented this summer, however, would be feasible, according to Michigan State professor John “Trey” Rogers. It’s something that he and his team showed was possible the previous time the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994.
FIFA was years away from an outright ban of artificial turf for its showcase tournaments when Rogers led an effort to outfit the Pontiac Silverdome, then the home of the Detroit Lions, with natural grass. What Rogers and his worker rolled into the Silverdome for early round games 32 years ago has become the go-to grass option: sod grown on plastic where roots, unable to grow downward, get intertwined as they grow sideways to make for a resilient surface.
“Obviously, it shaped my career, but man, if it had gone the other way, there’s no telling where I’d be right now,” Rogers told The Times.
SoFi Stadium is among the overwhelming majority of World Cup venues using sod-on-plastic, the breed of grass varying depending on climate and other factors. Rogers and University of Tennessee professor John Sorochan advised FIFA on the conversions for the World Cup.
A pro football field “is slightly easier than any soccer field because there’s not a ball roll element,” Rogers said. Soccer fields “are more akin to a putting green because of the ball roll than a football field. When the ball hits the ground in American football, you expect to hear the whistle blow.”
The differences between soccer and football fields are clear to NFL equipment managers as the league increasingly has played at soccer venues on international trips over the last couple of decades. The perennial ryegrass used in Europe is resistant to wear, but it also doesn’t have the traction players have become accustomed to in the NFL. Players often have to ditch the molded cleats they typically use for cleats with longer, detachable studs when playing outside the U.S.
“American football is very, very different from the game of soccer in a number of ways,” Pappas said. “Obviously, the style of play — how players are positioned and how they move with or without the ball — is very different. An NFL field is narrower, leading to more consolidated wear and tear. We have athletes that are also typically larger than most of the soccer athletes you see come through the World Cup.”
So, the fields used for the World Cup wouldn’t be the best fit, but turf experts point to Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium as an example of where sod-on-plastic works. New sod is brought in as many as a dozen times a year, and the field is ready for use within three to four days. The stadium, home to the Dolphins and the University of Miami football team, averages more than 50 non-NFL events a year — close to SoFi’s total — and Hard Rock Stadium got an “A-minus” in the NFLPA poll.
There are several variables when it comes to up-front and ongoing costs of using grass, especially in domed stadiums where permanent ultraviolet grow-light systems, drainage and irrigation would need to be installed. (At SoFi, portable UV lights have been in use during the World Cup.) Those costs easily could run into the millions. Each new shipment of sod that arrived in refrigerated trucks costs about $250,000 — and teams likely would have to replace that sod at least once during an NFL season. Then you’d have to add on the costs to irrigate and maintain the fields.
“It’s just more of a commitment, and who wants to be first?” Rogers said of indoor NFL stadiums switching to grass. “It’s scary to commit sometimes. If you think about the idea of just bringing the grass in from the sod farm, putting it down, you don’t have anything to maintain outside because the next field you’d bring in would come from the sod farm.”
As of now, there are no takers among the NFL teams that had their usual artificial turf fields covered by grass for the World Cup. The NFL will have one more grass surface next season as the Buffalo Bills move into their new Highmark Stadium, leaving the artificial turf behind at their old stadium.
Meanwhile, Davis’ stadium, which wasn’t a World Cup site, can swap grass and artificial turf (used for Nevada Las Vegas football and other events) in and out in a matter of hours.
“There are a lot of things with the stadium we spent the extra money on,” Davis said. “We knew we were paying more up front, but it’d be valuable to us later. Those extra costs in the beginning mean we don’t have to deal with it now.”
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