MESA – As the U.S. men’s national team begins its World Cup journey, questions arise both on and off the pitch.
Arizona Athletic Grounds is determined to stay out of one of the biggest conversations: field conditions. The sports facility will serve as Turkey’s official training site for the 2026 World Cup. It was one of 64 locations identified in FIFA’s Team Base Camp brochure, and later finalized as the team’s home away from home for the tournament.
“The reason that we’ve been chosen by Turkey is because we have world-class facilities, and we offer that white glove service,” said David Hayes, director of fields at Arizona Athletic Grounds.
Even though the Mesa location was one of the later official announcements, Hayes and his crew have been hard at work for a long time.
“In terms of field preparation, that started about six months ago,” he said. “It starts with a variety of different things, including leveling the fields out, adding seed, making sure we have all the appropriate equipment to move forward with all the things we need to do.”
A recent trending X post from the U.S. team’s warmup match against Senegal expressed concerns about the nation’s ability to host the largest World Cup in history. Although it showed Senegal players questioning the bounce of the ball in Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium, it was an inaccurate representation of the fields selected for when competition begins June 11. The stadium is serving as neither a host site nor a training site, meaning the pitch does not have to meet World Cup standards.
FIFA’s training site regulations state that “unless a training site is earmarked for a certain competition, these hosting requirements are not mandatory for other training sites.”
Official training sites have specific regulations for preparing the playing surfaces, among other things. For the pitch itself, this means mimicking the fields that will be used during the tournament.
“We prepare the fields to a very, very, very specific schematic that allows, hopefully, the players to feel like as they transition from their training field to a game field in a stadium, that it feels exactly the same,” Hayes said.
Attention to detail takes priority.
“We are mowing the fields, doing the measurements FIFA sends us,” field caretaker Juan Avila said. “We’re nervous, but we’re very excited and we’re up for the challenge.”
Arizona Athletic Grounds is following FIFA’s robust specifications. The grass is cut to a certain length, at a certain time, in a certain pattern.
“The way that they mow the lines is based on the lines of the fields,” Hayes said. “Every single line that is here, whether it be the white lines that they are playing within, or whether it be the way the fields are actually mowed, will be identical to all of the stadiums they’re playing in.”
Turkey’s group stage matches take place across North America’s West Coast – facing Australia in Vancouver, Paraguay in San Francisco and the United States in Los Angeles. The team will travel back to Mesa between fixtures, so it is imperative their training fields match the game fields.
“It’s described as burning in the lines,” Hayes said. “They have to mow that pattern, in both directions, in the same pattern, every day in the lead up to the event, so by the time the team gets here the way the field looks, plays, feels, touches, will be exactly the same as the stadiums they’re playing in.”
With Australia and Paraguay setting up camp in San Francisco, and the United States preparing in Irvine, Turkey is the only team in Group D not training in California. Arizona Athletic Grounds is bracing for the challenges that come with the extreme summer heat in the state.
“It’s a very specific type of seed that we have to buy for the part of the world that we’re in,” Hayes said. “We have to go over the nutrition content of the water, and how often we water the fields.”
The seed they use comes from the same vendor as TPC Scottsdale, host of the PGA Tour’s WM Phoenix Open. It’s a mix of 70-80% ryegrass and 20-30% bermuda grass, a combination unheard of this time of year in Arizona. The crew works tirelessly to keep their grounds pristine, spending over $36,000 a month on just water, Hayes said.
“Every three days our fields get tested for a variety of different things, including water consumption, water rates, saturation rates, all of the other things,” he said. “So it’s very, very detailed.”
With Iran no longer training in Tucson, Arizona Athletic Grounds is the only World Cup Team Base Camp in the state. It is proud to put Arizona on the national stage.
“It’s very exciting because we are hosting a FIFA team,” Avila said. “We’re preparing day by day, working very hard. We’re marking the pitch, (FIFA) gave us a map with the exact lines, so we are working very hard.”
The precision of the playing field is just one way training sites like Arizona Athletic Grounds adhere to FIFA’s standards. These facilities require much more infrastructure, including multiple dressing rooms, a 25 square-meter medical room, recovery room, indoor gym, lounge, restaurant/cafe, meeting rooms and prayer rooms.
Arizona Athletic Grounds offers these spaces and more, including hot and cold plunges, yoga rooms, a cryotherapy chamber and a hyperbaric chamber. These spaces will be used in tandem with the outdoor fields, especially given Arizona’s temperature constraints.
“(Turkey is) accessing our 22,000 square foot, NFL-style performance room,” Hayes said. “It’s got indoor turf, it’s got an indoor track, it’s got a variety of different weight machines, racks and all of the other things you’d need as an elite athlete to prepare for something like the World Cup.”
Privacy is also a concern for training sites, one that is heightened by the recent “spygate” scandal in the EFL Championship. Practice fields will be fenced in, offering no public viewing access during training sessions.
Arizona Athletic Grounds is hosting a community event Monday, the only time fans will have the ability to watch their favorite players. Tickets sold out in roughly 40 minutes, so the World Cup hype in Mesa is real.
Turkey’s World Cup run opens at 9 p.m. MST June 13 against Australia at BC Place in Vancouver.
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