A pungent smell clouds the stadium where the U.S. men’s football team is set to play its first World Cup match. With 30 days to go before kick-off, the venue’s operations team is busy transforming the playing field into a world-class soccer stadium, the freshly laid soil covered in fertilizer ahead of the arrival of refrigerated trucks with special grass the following day.
Tending to the playing surface is one small task in the job of delivering a seamless event in Los Angeles, one of 16 cities hosting the most popular sporting event in the world this summer.
Compared to other host cities, the stakes are particularly high in L.A., which hopes to use this year’s World Cup — and next year’s Super Bowl — as a dry run for the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, coming to the city two years later.
This is the start of L.... Read more
