Preparations ahead of the next World Cup are in full swing, with less than a year until the tournament commences on June 11, 2026.
The first to be hosted across three nations, 48 teams from six confederations will travel across North and Central America over the course of a month, visiting 16 venues to decide the winner.
It’s arguably the most logistically complex football tournament ever held, laying the foundations for a similarly ambitious centenary edition in 2030.
Estadio BBVA will be one of three Mexican stadiums used in 2026. Having opened in 2015 as the new home to Liga MX team CF Monterrey, the ground and much of its surrounding infrastructure already met FIFA guidelines. Recognising the need for playing surface improvements, however, the management team sought a full refit of the pitch in early 2025 to prepare it for the crucial months ahead.
Image: Estadio BBVA - Populous
The client brief was simple: deliver a pitch fit for World Cup standards and specification, playable within 10 weeks.
This short window was particularly challenging given the changes agreed through early consultation. Estadio BBVA’s old playing surface was to be fully excavated to make way for a series of advanced drainage and aeration systems developed by SIS. Once installed, the top layer would then be fitted with a hard-wearing stitched hybrid pitch.
Working together, these components not only promote ideal root zone growth conditions but also allow stadiums to manage a packed calendar of fixtures and events without impacting the quality of their playing surface. This was especially important for Estadio BBVA, with a packed summer of events and a full domestic football season planned before and after the World Cup.
As with any large project of this kind, the key to successful delivery lies in good preparation.
SIS and Estadio BBVA agreed work would commence in May 2025, once CF Monterrey’s season concluded. From the early conversations held in January, this gave the SIS team only a few months to plan, design and procure everything needed to deliver the new pitch in time.
Much like the ’26 World Cup, the project demanded solid logistics management. Everything had to be ready to go in May – equipment, materials and teams – if the 10-week turnaround was to remain achievable. In preparation, SIS had two containers shipped from Europe to Mexico in advance of work commencing.
Excavation took just over two weeks. Once the area had been fully cleared down to the formation level, trenches were dug for irrigation pipework to be laid. The sand bed was then added, with gravel and a root bed on top, and finished with fresh natural turf, grown 100km away in the turf farm chosen by the client and FIFA.
Estadio BBVA represents an important step forward for SIS, as the first major stadium to install three of our solutions at a single project.
The first was a new version of SIS Air – a turf aeration and rainwater management system designed to promote stronger, healthier grass. For Monterrey, the system was upgraded with enhanced moisture and temperature sensors, allowing the site team to adapt to local conditions in Mexico, where natural grass typically struggles to thrive.
This upgrade was designed to work alongside SIS Aqua, an advanced pitch irrigation system with 35 pop-up units that can be individually controlled. This creates an even distribution of water across the pitch, delivering a uniform playing surface.
Finally – and key to meeting the 10-week turnaround – the stadium was fitted with SIS Hybrid. The installation of hybrid grass can be completed in as little as three days using SIS Pitches’ leading X-Gen machines, which were launched globally in 2025.
SIS’s planning and logistics has paid off, with the stadium now set for one of the world’s most-watched sporting events.
Delivery was completed by 24 July, meeting the 10-week deadline. The result is an elite-level football pitch now capable of performing to the highest standards all year round, supported by a suite of tools that optimise play regardless of local conditions.
Since completion, SIS has been on site to hand over to the Estadio BBVA site team, advising on regular maintenance and scheduling. Initial feedback has been positive.
Carlos Reis, Operations Director, said: “Transforming Estadio BBVA into a World Cup-ready venue in just 10 weeks was a milestone for SIS.
“By integrating SIS Air, SIS Aqua and our turf, we’ve delivered a surface that meets the highest standards of play and durability. It’s a proud moment – not just for our team, but for what this project represents in terms of innovation and collaboration.”
