WINNING GROUNDS
WORLD CUP 2026
Play the pitch, play the crowd, play the world
World Cup Winning Grounds 2026 celebrates the pitches, stadiums, training grounds and people that make the tournament possible. As pitch performance provider for World Cup 2026, SGL helps create the conditions for world-class performance on football’s biggest stage. Discover the expertise, technology and dedication behind the game’s most memorable moments.
Pitch performance provider
The World Cup is where the world comes together. Where nations dream, fans unite and unforgettable moments become part of football history.
Across Canada, Mexico and the United States, sixteen stadiums will host the biggest tournament on earth. Each one is more than a venue. It is a winning ground. A stage for ambition, drama, triumph and unforgettable memories.
Days until the 2026 World Cup
Explore the Winning Grounds
My Winning Ground
Long before the first whistle, thousands of hours go into preparing the world’s biggest stage. Meet the people behind the pitches and discover the stories, challenges and passion that shape every World Cup moment.
We are in a really good position. The Club World Cup helped us tremendously in understanding what is needed to prepare for a tournament of this scale. It showed us what is required, what works, and where we need to focus our efforts to be fully prepared for the World Cup.
Tony Leonard, Director of Grounds – Philadelphia Stadium
It’s going to be an interesting World Cup. Stadiums are spread across Canada, the United States and Mexico, and thus have very different growing climates. It will be a challenge to get consistency across all of the sixteen playing fields, so the ball bounces and rolls the same way on each surface.
Robert Heggie, Director of Grounds – Toronto Stadium
The scale of this tournament is incredible. It’s not just about the 16 stadiums but also the 48 host camps and 32 training sites. The number of sports turf professionals involved is massive.
Tyler Morris, Head Sports Field Manager – New York/New Jersey Stadium
The focus is on consistency and uniformity, for 104 matches across 16 stadiums — including five indoors — at different altitudes, in different countries and on two types of grass, the goal is to make them play the same. That has been my vision and goal from the beginning.
John Sorochan, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor Turfgrass Science – University of Tennessee
Stadium of the Day
Dallas Stadium
Dallas Stadium is a World Cup Winning Ground on a scale few venues in world sport can match. Better known as AT&T Stadium, the massive arena in Arlington is home to the Dallas Cowboys (NFL) and will host nine World Cup matches, including the first semi-final. With a capacity of 94,000, it will be the largest stadium of the tournament and one of the biggest stages in global sport.
Opened in 2009, the stadium has become a benchmark for innovation in pitch management. It is the first venue in the world to use a grow light structure suspended directly from the roof, allowing easy deployment and maintenance underneath the unit without any pressure on the playing surface. During the World Cup, that technology will help prepare one of the tournament’s biggest stages for football’s biggest moments.
World Cup pitch testing with fLEX
Every World Cup moment starts with confidence in the surface beneath the game. To help deliver that confidence, FIFA has selected SGL’s fLEX to assess the pitch quality of all 16 stadiums and 32 training facilities throughout the tournament.
By combining true player-to-surface simulation with detailed performance insights, fLEX provides a unique understanding of how a pitch will perform when it matters most.
Join Dr. Kyley Dickson, Co-founder and Director of fLEX at SGL, for an inside look at the technology helping prepare the winning grounds of the 2026 World Cup.
