BrightView Transforms SoFi Stadium Playing Surface for the 2025 Concacaf Nations League Finals

The Concacaf Nations League Finals is coming to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., and BrightView is playing a key role in the transformation for championship soccer.

SoFi Stadium, home to the Los Angeles Chargers, typically features an artificial turf field—perfect for football, but not for world-class soccer. To meet the tournament’s standards, BrightView has meticulously converted the field into a regulation soccer pitch, ensuring optimal playing conditions for some of the best teams in the region.

The annual tournament features more than 40 national teams from the Americas, from Canada in the north to Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana in the south, and determines which teams qualify for the next Concacaf Gold Cup. This year, SoFi Stadium is hosting the Semifinals, Third Place, and Final matches from March 20 to 23, making it the ultimate battleground for soccer supremacy.

Transforming the field to a pitch is no small feat. It all began with the turf itself being grown on a farm nearly a year ahead of time in Washington, then getting harvested and sent on a 1,100-mile journey to California where BrightView was ready for its arrival.

However, before the turf could be laid down, the team at BrightView first put down a flooring over the artificial turf, and then covered it with Permavoid, an innovative stormwater control structure with a 95-percent void ratio, allowing for sustainable drainage instead of waste. Resembling a grid of milk crates, this system provides a stable and eco-friendly foundation. Next, the crews spread 6 inches of USDA sand-based rootzone before installing the 80,000 square feet of the natural turf, creating the perfect pitch for championship play.

“Our Sports Turf team does a lot of international baseball tournaments and MLB events, so for me on the team, building an international soccer pitch was a whole new experience,” said Anthony DeFeo, BrightView Senior Account Manager. “This has been a real learning experience, including how to keep growing this natural grass in a completely indoor environment.”

The entire transformation, from the base layer to the final blades of grass, was completed in just under a month. Following the final match on Sunday, the Women’s National Team will play April 5, and then the entire pitch will be removed within 14 days.

BrightView’s expertise in sports turf ensures that players and fans alike will experience top-tier soccer on a world-class playing surface—one built to impress, even if it’s just for a weekend.

“The two biggest takeaways from working on this project have been the amount of cooperation and teamwork taking place,” DeFeo said. “There have been a lot of individuals and vendors, even two soccer pitch experts from England, who have come together to create this pitch for the first time. Even within BrightView, our Development and Sports Turf teams came together to create this high-level, first-of-its-kind soccer pitch.”