Unlike the US men’s national team or any of the other 48 teams participating in the 2026 World Cup, the newly installed stadium at MetLife Stadium will not receive any fixtures before the start of the world’s biggest sporting events.
FIFA officials were there on Thursday to show off the new grass that has been laid at the Meadowlands for this summer’s tournament, which started on Wednesday and is expected to end on Thursday night.
But stadium general manager David Graham said the first time anyone steps into the stadium will be “the first game for New York New Jersey.”
“And it’s going to be absolutely fine,” he said as he pointed to the new turf field being laid at the home of the Jets and Giants.
The first match at MetLife Stadium begins on June 13 when Brazil face Morocco in the group stage.
The installation of the grass field – the installation above the grass field that normally sits on the stadium – is a two-day process that involves 14 trucks on site.
The grass is grown at Carolina Green Turf Farm in North Carolina.
The farm provides the turf for Arrowhead Stadium and many of the training facilities used by the national teams during the World Cup.
The process of growing grass takes eight to 10 months.
Graham said there is a “comprehensive plan in place” to protect the grass between its installation and the start of the World Cup.
“We have our plans where we have vacuum air, we will do hybrid reinforcement this weekend,” he said. “It’s a really comprehensive plan. We’d like the weather to warm up so the grass can grow, obviously, but it’s a plan we usually take six to eight weeks, and we repeat, repeat, repeat at the end of the tournament.”
As crews work hard to install a stadium in East Rutherford, it has been reported that NJ Transit will lower the cost of train tickets to World Cup games at MetLife Stadium.
A round-trip ticket from Manhattan to MetLife was originally announced to cost $150, but has now been reduced to $105, which is more than 800 percent off the regular price ticket.
The high cost of the World Cup was a topic of conversation that even President Donald Trump spoke about during a telephone conversation with The Post late Wednesday.
Trump ripped the game’s ticket prices and told The Post’s James Franey, “I’m not going to pay it either, to be honest with you.”
