John Sorochan is a turfgrass expert at the University of Tennessee. For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, he has a big job: keeping the grass in perfect condition across 16 stadiums spread across three countries.

Why is this hard? The World Cup is being held in Canada, the United States, and Mexico—places with completely different weather. Vancouver is cool and mild. Miami is hot and humid. Mexico City is high up in the mountains and very dry. Each city needs a different type of grass and a different way of taking care of it. Sorochan's job is to figure out what works best at each stadium.

He works with another expert, Trey Rogers, who specializes in sports grass. Together they focus on two things: making sure grass stays safe for players to run and slide on, and making sure it can handle the wear and tear of a World Cup—64 games, each one with 22 athletes running at full speed.

Sorochan has been doing this for a long time. When he was a college student in 1994, he helped prepare grass for the last World Cup held in the United States. That experience matters. The 1994 tournament showed that American stadiums didn't have a good system for keeping grass in shape. Over the last 30 years, football stadiums have learned how to do this better. That knowledge is what Sorochan is using now.

Los Angeles Stadium is one place where this is tricky, according to the New York Times. Most of the time, LA Stadium is used for NFL football, not soccer. Grass is hard to maintain in stadiums designed for that purpose. In past World Cups, grass has gotten torn up and ugly by the time the tournament ends, especially in hot places where heat makes damage worse.

Sorochan's research is trying to stop that. When thousands of players run on grass over several weeks, it gets damaged faster than it can grow back naturally. His team tests different types of grass, different soil mixtures, and even special lights to help grass grow faster and stronger.

In March 2026, the University of Tennessee held a special field day where FIFA officials came to see the research. This is important: FIFA isn't just asking for advice—they're actually using Sorochan's research as part of how they prepare stadiums.

Football has a big choice to make. Some players and teams want artificial turf instead of real grass. They say artificial surfaces cause fewer injuries and play differently. But FIFA has decided that the World Cup must be played on real grass. The question is always: can stadiums actually pull this off? Sorochan's work answers that question with science.

Once 64 games start being played in June 2026, nobody will know for sure if the grass stays in great shape the whole time. Tournament grass is managed under real pressure—everyone is watching—and there's no time to fix problems the way research normally allows. What matters now is that this World Cup's grass plan is based on serious science, not just hoping things work out.