Why FIFA Is Staking Its $3.8B World Cup on This Grass Experiment | WSJ Tech Behind

FIFA is spending millions to create consistent, natural-grass playing surfaces across all 16 stadiums hosting the 2026 World Cup. Because many of these venues in the U.S. were designed for NFL football rather than soccer pitches, the project requires massive transformations at each venue. Grass for the new playing surfaces must be grown at specialized turf farms, transported across the continent, and installed in stadiums across North America, each with its own unique climate, design, and challenges. WSJ explores how scientists are pulling off this multimillion-dollar engineering feat, and how it could change the future of sports. Chapters: 0:00 Playing soccer matches in NFL stadiums 0:48 Developing the grass 3:42 Moving from sod farms to stadiums 4:56 Working across different venues 5:53 Impact on sports Tech Behind 'The Tech Behind' explores the amazing engineering, computing, science and algorithms that power our favorite tech. #FIFA #WorldCup #WSJ