Grass turf for FIFA Men's World Cup at Lumen Field gets stress test

Just before 10 p.m. Tuesday, a foursome of mowers emerged from storage, and for the next 30 minutes or so, they traversed the 115 yards of grass in perfect formation, meticulously following a guideline to make sure the cutting patterns were equal and uniform.

When they finished - amid a driving rainstorm - the mower bags were emptied and the grass clippings dumped into a bin next to the field that was just manicured. If not for the setting inside Lumen Field - and the odd time of day - it could have been any neighborhood in the Puget Sound region with a lawn and a push mower capable enough of giving the grass a haircut on a rainy evening.

Welcome to the new - temporary - reality of playing soccer inside Seattle's biggest stadium.

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The long-awaited grass field installed for the FIFA Men's World Cup made its debut this week when the U.S. women's national team and the Sounders played matches on consecutive days Tuesday and Wednesday night. It was an immediate stress test for the brand-new surface that came with the added element of natural watering of the field thanks to a nasty mid-April storm blowing through town.

And by the accounts of the players that were running around on the grass pitch, the field earned a passing grade for its first test.

"I think all the players liked it. I definitely liked it. It played really well," Sounders forward Danny Musovski said. "I feel like the ball was moving smoother than it usually does, and I think it feels better on our bodies as well."

Installation of the grass field started in late February and will be used for at least 16 matches over the next three months: six during the World Cup, six for the Sounders and four for the Reign. Around 12 to 14 inches of sand and other base materials were installed on top of the existing artificial turf of the stadium before the sod was laid down. When all the soccer is done, the grass and base materials will be removed, and the previous artificial surface will get freshened up in time for the start of the NFL season for the Seahawks.

In the past with the artificial surface of the stadium, a postgame treatment by the field maintenance crew might mean using a power washer to remove painted-on lines or logos. Now, it's mowers, guide lines and clippings likely bound for a compost bin just like any other lawn maintenance.

And if there were any concerns about how the grass surface would hold up, its debut provided quite the test.

The two matches were played barely 24 hours apart - first the U.S. women against Japan on Tuesday night, followed by the Sounders hosting Liga MX club Tigres on Wednesday in a CONCACAF Champions Cup match. Both games were played on cold and, most notably, rainy nights with stretches of precipitation closer to a deluge than a gentle sprinkle.

Despite the use and despite the rain, there were no chunks of turf coming up. There weren't players slipping all over the place. The grass seemed to hold up - rather impressively.

"I thought it played really well. I think the concern when grass is put in is maybe slipping. I didn't notice guys slipping too much and it didn't seem to come up," Sounders forward Jordan Morris said. "It was nice. I think it played really well. So it definitely wasn't something you kind of noticed when you were out there. Maybe a little better on the body than playing on turf."

U.S. women's coach Emma Hayes noted that the rainstorm her team played in on Tuesday night actually made the field play faster than expected.

"I think it played nicely. I didn't get a sense that there was an issue there," Hayes said. "However, because it was so wet it played really quick. So I think our short passes were - anything that wasn't put into people's feet, if it was a misplaced pass or something that's over here, it just ran away from us. So, yes, it plays a part, but this is football. You've got to play the conditions. And, yeah, I think it was a nice surface."

Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said that despite the sod only getting laid down 10 days ago, he felt the quality of the surface was already equal to the grass surface that was installed in a shorter time frame last summer for the Club World Cup at Lumen Field.

"Field is perfect. It's very good. It's as good as the Club World Cup last year, and it's just been laid. I think April 6 was the day that it was laid," Schmetzer said. "So it's going to get better in the Seattle sunshine."

Schmetzer's players all raved about how immediately the grass felt more forgiving on their bodies, which was notable considering the rough physicality of the match against Tigres.

If the grass continues to hold up over the coming weeks, it's going to likely raise the question of whether it could be a permanent option at the stadium. To date, that's been viewed as unlikely, simply because of the multipurpose use of the venue between two soccer teams, the Seahawks and other events at the stadium like concerts - along with the challenges of the local weather.

But for now, it's a grass field. And perhaps one of the best compliments came from U.S. midfielder Olivia Moultrie, who said it seemed like a permanent field and not something only around for a short time.

"I thought it was really nice. I thought it was good. I was saying if I didn't know anything about Lumen Field and I didn't know what the turf was like, I wouldn't necessarily walk out there and be like, ‘Oh, this is laid-down grass,'" Moultrie said.

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This story was originally published April 16, 2026 at 4:59 PM.