Los Angeles World Cup officials gearing up for start of event less than 30 days away

INGLEWOOD — SoFi Stadium will be one of the busiest locations for the upcoming FIFA Men’s World Cup.

The home of the Rams and Chargers will host eight games, including the United States men’s national team’s opener on June 12 against Paraguay. Tuesday marked the beginning of the final 30 days before the start of the World Cup at the stadium.

By then, the name on the building will change. The facility will be known as Los Angeles Stadium throughout the tournament and the new FIFA regulated grass field will have finally been installed.

“We completed two phases of construction,” SoFi Stadium’s Senior VP of Facility and Campus Operation Otto Benedict said. “To create more auxiliary space and wider pitch dimensions. This included the removal of corner seats to meet FIFA’s specifications for width requirements. We have installed a sophisticated irrigation system, specifically designed to maintain a FIFA World Cup regulation pitch.

“Construction began on April 13, immediately following our Monster Jam event.”

On Tuesday, the field was still dirt, with the new grass field en route from the state of Washington on refrigerated trucks. Benedict added that it would be installed “over a two-day period.”

“We’ll lay the sod early morning tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, we’ll do a portion of the field and we’ll repeat that same process for the next day so that we’re taking in small amounts at a time and it spends the least amount of time it can in the truck. After that, the field becomes FIFA’s. They are dictating who’s going out there, what’s happening. If they want us to do a mow pattern a certain way, we will do that. The amendments, the irrigation, when the grow lights go on, when they come off, all of that is going to be in collaboration with FIFA and their team.

“We’ll sleep later.”

Benedict said that they removed a total of 400 seats (100 in each corner).

“The design was to make it look intentional and when we convert back, we’ll be able to put those same seats back in. We worked with FIFA in their design needs, as well as our architects, to create a seamless, very easy-to-convert system, which already exists in the building.”

After the USMNT’s game June 12, SoFi will host Iran-New Zealand on June 15, Switzerland-Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 18, Belgium-Iran on June 21, USMNT-Turkey on June 25, a pair of Round of 32 games (June 28 and July 2) and a quarterfinal (July 10).

“The L.A. World Cup experience is 39 days of soccer-themed events, taking place around our region, giving visitors an opportunity to see all that L.A. has to offer,” President and CEO of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission and CEO of the L.A. World Cup Host Committee Kathryn Schloessman said.

Schloessman said that the “L.A. World Cup experience” will kick off with an official Fan Festival on June 11 at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Fans will be able to “gather to watch matches, enjoy live music, food and cheer on their favorite teams and countries together.”

“After the opening weekend, the World Cup celebration expands across our region to 10 official Los Angeles World Cup fan zones, from Union Station to West Harbor in San Pedro and from Venice Beach to the Fairplex and Pomona,” she said. “I think we’re going to have a safe, secure and successful time here.”