Football – well, a kind of football – was played on natural grass at Ohio Stadium on Saturday night.
With Manchester City and Chelsea of the English Premier League facing off in an international soccer friendly at the Shoe on Saturday night, Ohio State installed a temporary natural grass field inside Ohio Stadium.
A time-lapse video shared by Ohio State on Friday showed the process of the grass field installation, which included covering up the permanent turf surface before putting the temporary sod in place.
It’s the first time a sporting event was played on natural grass inside Ohio Stadium since 2016, when the Shoe hosted an International Champions Cup match between Real Madrid and Paris St. Germain.
Manchester City defeated Chelsea, 4-2, as Manchester City star Erling Haaland scored three goals for a hat trick. 71,280 fans attended the match.
HAT TRICK FOR HAALAND! MAN CITY ARE DESTROYING CHELSEA pic.twitter.com/aKS920qCMe
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) August 3, 2024
The managers of both teams were critical of the temporary grass field after the game, and Manchester City midfielder Jack Grealish described the pitch as “horrible” when asked about it on his way out of the stadium. That said, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was complimentary of Ohio Stadium itself and the atmosphere created by the many soccer fans who made their way to the Shoe for the exhibition.
“The stadium is really nice. You come here, you see the stadium’s full and the support,” Guardiola said in his postgame press conference. “I know the pitch is not good because it’s a (college football) stadium.”
Ohio State hasn’t played a home football game on natural grass since 2006. While Ohio Stadium’s primary playing surface was grass until 1922-70 and again from 1990-2006, the Buckeyes have played on FieldTurf since 2007.
Calls for Ohio State to permanently replace the turf with grass have increased in recent years amid a push by the NFL Players Association to ban artificial turf fields in their league. Ohio State has suffered from a notable number of lower-body injuries in recent seasons, leading to questions about whether the turf at Ohio Stadium is partially responsible.
Ohio State, however, has disputed the belief that turf causes more injuries and resisted calls to bring grass back to the Shoe, citing the desire to host concerts and other events inside Ohio Stadium that would damage the grass.
“Ohio Stadium is an unbelievable facility. It's iconic. And one of the reasons we changed the artificial turf was to make it more usable,” former Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told Eleven Warriors in 2023. “So haven't thought about (replacing the turf with grass) yet. It may come to us. It's always a possibility. But at this point in time, it’s something that we're not prepared to do."
Ohio State replaced the turf inside Ohio Stadium in 2022.
