MSU tabbed to help develop turf for 2026 World Cup

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — In 2026, the World Cup is coming to North America. While Michigan won’t serve as an official venue, the Mitten State will play a key role in all 16 pitches planned for the tournament.

Michigan State University announced this week that its turfgrass management program has once again been tabbed to provide the playing surfaces for the tournament.

FIFA, the Federation Internationale de Football Association, will provide grant funding for both MSU and its partners at the University of Tennessee. They are tasked with designing, transporting, installing and removing the turf for all 16 sites, which present their own unique challenges, including differing climates and altitudes.

John Rogers III, a professor of turfgrass research at MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources , said the selection is not only an honor but will help his team push their researcher forward.

“FIFA’s research support for the 2026 World Cup will allow us to develop and perfect temporary turf even further and to usher in an unbelievable era,” Rogers said in a university blog post .

MSU hosted a field day last week to show FIFA and its partners some of its latest developments. According to the university, they showed them how the turfgrass is grown and how the turf interacts with an athlete’s cleats using a specialized machine that “mimics the rigors of gameplay.”

It is the second time MSU has worked on World Cup turf. The university was also tabbed to design transportable turf to be installed at the Pontiac Silverdome for the 1994 World Cup.

“The challenge was to grow turfgrass indoors that could be installed and removed from the venue,” the blog post stated. “Rogers and his team showed that portable turf is possible — an innovation of its time that has now become common in the industry.”

John Sorochan, a professor of Turfgrass Science and Management at UT, was a graduate student working under Rogers in 1994. Now, the two are working together for the 2026 tournament.

“I remember to this day, (the 1994 World Cup project), it made me want to go on to grad school,” Sorochan said on the MSU Today podcast. “What better way to get the band back together than to ask (Rogers), ‘Can you partner with us on this? Can we do this together?’”

The 2026 World Cup will be the first tournament to be expanded to 48 teams. The field is not set yet, but the tournament will run from June 11 through July 19 in 2026.

Mexico will hold three sites: Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. Canada will hold two: Toronto and Vancouver. The United States will hold the other 11: New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

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