M&T Bank Stadium Preps Field For Big Soccer Match This Weekend
BALTIMORE (WJZ)—Before football makes a return to M&T Bank Stadium, a major soccer match is being played there this weekend.
As Mary Bubala reports, when the players step foot in the stadium, they'll run on real grass.
That's genuine Kentucky blue grass, filling the field at M&T Bank Stadium.
It takes 530 rolls of sod and a grounds crew of more than 12 to create a field of dreams for a match-up between two of Britain's premier soccer league teams: Liverpool F.C and Tottenham Hotspur.
"It's about $110,000 worth of sod in here," said Don Follett, stadium groundskeeper.
Follett says it takes two days and 24 truckloads of grass to fill 86,000 square feet of playing area.
"As they are installing it over here right now they make sure they pull the pieces of sod together as tight as they can and later this afternoon we will actually come out here with a roller and roll it down, and when you roll it down it pushes the seams together even more," Follett said.
The process is now second nature for the stadium crew because this is the third time Baltimore has hosted a huge soccer match.
As fast as the grass is getting put down it has to be rolled right back up after the soccer match on Saturday because there's still a football field under there.
And football comes back to M&T Bank Stadium just a week later.
"This Saturday we got this game and the following Saturday we have the open public scrimmage with the Ravens players," Follett said.
Tickets to the soccer match are still available; 40,000 have already sold. You can buy tickets online or at the gate on Saturday.
The match starts at 1 p.m.
