90 minutes. That’s how long Chelsea FC and Celtic FC had to showcase the months of hard work they had done in preparation for their international friendly in South Bend, Indiana. Much like these world-class clubs, Notre Dame Stadium also had to prepare for the 90-minute match, undergoing a total makeover to transform the football field into a high quality soccer pitch in just five days.
Beginning on Monday, July 22nd, the team from Bush Turf installed 100,000 square feet of geotextile membrane on top of the synthetic turf. This layer is crucial in protecting the turf from damage and a process the team knew all too well, having done it in 2019 when Liverpool played Borussia Dortmund in Notre Dame Stadium.
While Bush Turf laid the geotextile membrane Monday afternoon, our partners from Carolina Green, located in South Carolina, were also doing their part. They cut the grass, loaded the 800,000 pounds of sod in 20 refrigerated semi trucks, and traveled 12 hours to South Bend.
Tuesday, July 23rd brought a full day’s work, with the refrigerated trucks arriving on campus at 6:30 a.m. The team laid and completed about two-thirds of the field, connecting the individual skids of sod, massaging it, and watering it late into the night to keep it healthy. Meanwhile in South Carolina, 12 more refrigerated semi trucks were loaded with the remaining freshly cut skids of sod and began the 12-hour road trip. The Bush Turf team repeated the 12-hour process on Wednesday when the remaining sod was delivered early that morning.
Over the remaining two days before the match, the final details were put in place. The LED boards were installed around the pitch, the lines on the field were painted, the sod was fine-tuned, the benches installed, and the goals were set. What was once a world-class football field was transformed into a world-class soccer pitch, ready to welcome Chelsea FC and Celtic FC for a competitive friendly stateside.
Watch the entire field transformation here.