Inside Levi's Stadium's Super Bowl LX makeover
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Super Bowl green laid out at Levi's Stadium. Photo: Shawna Chen/Axios
When Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara is catapulted to the national stage on Feb. 8 for the Super Bowl, it will feature 80,000 square feet of grass meticulously cultivated for America's biggest sports event of the year.
Why it matters: Prepping the field — a crucial but often-overlooked component of Super Bowl Sunday — requires a lot more science than you might think.
State of play: The NFL installs a new field at host stadiums before every Super Bowl to ensure fresh paint on yard lines and end zones — as well as Super Bowl-specific graphics.
- For Levi's, the grass was grown over the course of roughly 18 months at a sod farm a few hours away in Livingston, on a thin layer of soil over plastic sheeting to ensure it forms a dense playing surface about two inches thick.
- Once harvested, the grass was cut into over 550 40-foot rolls and transported in trucks to the stadium, where it was installed using asphalt rollers over the course of two days in early January.
What they're saying: "There's a saying in our industry that it grows by the inch and dies by the foot. That's the human foot," NFL field director Nick Pappas told me when I visited the stadium on Wednesday.
- "Our job is to make sure we can grow it back and keep it happy and healthy."
Behind the scenes: Pappas and his team rely on a complex system of sensors, data collection tools and turf management practices to protect the field in the weeks leading up to the game, especially as ceremony prep and performance rehearsals ramp up the trampling.
- They constantly monitor the grass moisture, the amount of sunlight it's getting, temperature conditions and field hardness.
- This all leads up to dropping a free-falling weight inside a cylinder to assess surface firmness as part of game-day certification.
- January is often one of the wettest months of the year in the Bay Area, and the NFL uses aeration techniques and underground vacuum ventilation as needed.
- "We can manipulate the field in a number of different ways, but obviously it's nice when Mother Nature plays nice," Pappas quipped.
💠My thought bubble: As a casual football fan, I had no idea so much work went into preserving NFL fields.
- During my tour (you can bet I bragged about it to my friends), I watched workers spray paint over lengths of string and almost affectionately pat the grass.
- Lighting rigs and heat lamps had been used to stimulate grass growth overnight.
- "It's here just for the Super Bowl. That's why we want it to be as beautiful as it can be," Pappas told me. The grass is earmarked for compost after the game as Levi's Stadium shifts gears for the World Cup this summer.
What's next: The final two matchups before the Super Bowl take place this Sunday.
- The Denver Broncos face off against the New England Patriots at noon PT, while the Seattle Seahawks take on the Los Angeles Rams at 3:30pm PT.
- Winners will advance to the Super Bowl, playing on championship-grade grass.
