00:00So, yes, every stadium is kind of its own unique a la carte environment, right?
00:08You could be in Miami, which is sea level and kind of a hot tropical kind of climate, humid, versus
00:17indoors in Vancouver.
00:20It's inside and it's a cool climate and, you know, but it could be still kind of humid or whatever.
00:26But it's completely different to, you know, you've got high altitude, you know, over 2,000 meters in Mexico City.
00:34So, we've looked at each stadium individually, but also trying to group them in similarities.
00:43And the ones that we really separated from all of them, there's five indoor stadiums.
00:48So, where the roof is completely closed and it's somewhat similar to, you know, Santiago Bernabeu, where they don't see
00:55any sun.
00:56So, we have to rely 100% on grow lights.
01:00And those five stadiums are Vancouver, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston.
01:11So, we look at how the balls interact with those surfaces and, you know, and how the players are going
01:19to run and cut on those surfaces to be the same.
01:21Because the grass that's going to be in the warmth, the warm season grass, the Bermuda grass, it grows differently.
01:28And the traction that it gives is greater than the cool season grasses.
01:33It would, if you mow it too high, the ball is going to be slow and be like Velcro.
01:39And you think of a team like the Spanish national team, which is a very technical team and one of
01:44the best at passing and moving the ball around and getting the chasing.
01:48You know, they want the pitch wet.
01:50They want the ball to move so that they can have the other team chasing the ball.
01:56Also, including when they switch the ball to the other side of the pitch, when it comes in and hits,
02:02you don't want it bouncing too high.
02:04You want it to bounce up to their knees or lower so they can get the ball and advance it.
02:08If it bounces too high, the defender has time to catch up and take the ball away.
02:14If you're playing a game in Boston, you might see the grass looks like it's higher up or in Atlanta
02:20where the Spanish national team is playing.
02:22They see where it is.
02:23It's going to be the same grass that's in Bernabal or Atlético Madrid and the new stadium in Barcelona.
02:33It's the same grass.
02:34But the other grass is the grass that might be down in southern Spain.
02:39And it's Bermuda grass.
02:41And they'll cut that a little lower so when you stand on it, you'll see that it doesn't come as
02:45high on your cleats.
02:47But the ball rolls the same and bounces the same.
02:49When the players run and cut, they'll have very similar footing.
02:54So that's going to be, in my opinion, easier for players to understand that have played in La Liga because
03:02they play on those different surfaces already.
03:05But for teams that play in, say, Germany or England, in EPL or Bundesliga, they only play on one kind
03:16of grass.
03:17And so it's the same grass that's in the northern part of Spain.
03:21So when they go play on the grass that would be similar in southern Spain, the Bermuda grass, they're going
03:26to be like, hey, why does this look different?
03:29When you consider the surface, we want it consistent and uniform and a nice 100% grass surface.
03:37And when it's that, that's going to be the best way to have a high-performing field that's going to
03:43be the less likelihood to prevent an injury, cause an injury.
03:49The next thing is, is to work with the equipment managers, the trainers, the players, and so they have an
03:56understanding what the surface is and what cleats they wear.
03:59Because when an athlete is running and playing, there's three components.
04:02There's the surface, there's the athlete, and then the shoes, the cleats, the boots, and what kind of studs.
04:08And if they wear ones that are too aggressive, that can cause increased likelihood for injuries.
04:14And there's been research out of Australia and all over the publications that show players that wear cleats that give
04:22you too much traction can increase the loads and increase knee injuries.
04:25And I hope that players will pick, you know, the shoes that are safest for them.
04:30And that comes down to the individual teams, equipment managers.
04:34We're always able to answer those questions if they want to ask us, but that's kind of a different level
04:40from what we deal with, for sure.
04:43Of the 16 stadiums, eight of them are synthetic, normally, throughout the year.
04:49And the research we've done for FIFA over the last three years, three to four years, has gone into eliminating
04:57the effects of that artificial turf.
04:59So there's going to be a pitch built above that synthetic turf with there's enough sand root zone that when
05:08a player runs and cuts or hits, you would never know that 30 centimeters below or 40 centimeters below is
05:16a synthetic field.
05:17It's all going to be, you know, there's going to be a minimum of 20 to 30 centimeters of sand
05:22on top of it, plus a drainage layer, plus a hard flooring.
05:27So you would never know that they're synthetic.
05:30Unlike other events that other tournaments and other things for FIFA World Cup 26, it's 100% natural gas construction.
05:39What we've seen is all of these stadiums are required to have a vacuum ventilation system, which means if it's
05:47raining really heavily, they're constructed out of sand.
05:49So they already drain rapidly, but you can also increase the rate at which it does by creating a suction,
05:56a vacuum to pull that water down through really fast.
06:00And there would not be standing water.
06:02The only thing that would limit or restrict the play would be lightning, where they want to make, protect the
06:08people.
06:08So they're not, they're plastic fibers, so they're not a conductor of electricity or anything like that or anything like
06:15that.
06:15But, you know, the aluminum goalposts, the sophistication of the weather alert systems is really good in these stadiums.
06:25Particularly, I think it's probably one of the better in the world for sports because of the sport they play
06:31here, baseball.
06:32And they really want to make sure during baseball games they can cover up the infield with a cover before
06:38the rain starts.
06:39So, you know, they monitor weather so well, especially in Miami and all that.
06:44They know, you know, if within, I don't know what the criterium is, but many kilometers away, if there's a
06:50lightning strike,
06:51they'll suspend the game and get everyone in the stands and everyone protected.
06:57So they have to leave the seats in concourse.
06:59That's a common thing in stadiums around the world.
07:03But fortunately, you know, the Pacific Northwest, where Seattle, Vancouver, well, it's indoors in Vancouver, but Seattle, but Boston, New
07:11York, Philadelphia,
07:13the summers are actually don't have a lot of these storms.
Comentarios