Spokane native helps with 'once in a lifetime' World Cup project

Apart from the rare sod aficionado, the two years of work Sean Vanos did to prepare for Monday's World Cup match between Egypt and Belgium wasn't widely noticed amongst the millions of soccer fans who tuned in.

For a groundskeeper, that's almost a compliment.

"Nobody talks about the offensive line until the quarterback's getting sacked a lot or the running back can't run the ball, things like that, and then they start blaming the offensive line," Vanos said. "I think there's some comparisons there with a groundskeeper: just the guy that day in and day out provides the same thing so that everybody else can do their job."

A native of Spokane, Vanos got his start grooming the links at Manito Golf and Country Club before graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in community and environmental planning. He later completed a two-year turf grass management program at Penn State University.

Vanos has worked on fields up and down the West Coast, including T-Mobile Park, and golf courses in Seattle and Los Angeles. For the past 21 years, Vanos has worked for the Seattle Seahawks, a role that includes maintaining the practice fields at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton. He currently serves as the team's Director of Fields.

"One of my favorite things about my career is to be able to share the experience of sports with other people, and to see the joy that brings to other people's lives," Vanos said. "People go to work every day and all of those types of things, but this is something that people enjoy doing outside of their everyday life."

While with the Seahawks, Vanos earned two Super Bowl rings for the championships the team captured earlier this year and in 2014. But around two years ago, he was asked help with a project that doesn't compare to anything else he's done in his career.

"It was like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of one of the largest, if not the largest, sporting events in the world," Vanos said. "And just to have the opportunity to maintain something at this level, and with a group like FIFA, you know their standards are very high."

Seattle Stadium, like stadiums across the country hosting World Cup matches, typically features a synthetic playing surface that allows for more stadium use and less maintenance. Of the 16 host venues across North America, eight installed a temporary grass playing surface as required by FIFA.

The conversion project required years of preparations, a trip half-way around the world and 16-hour work days to ensure the stadium meets FIFA standards.

Ahead of the tournament, Vanos traveled to London to visit some of the most historic soccer pitches in the world, including Wembley Stadium and London Stadium, which allowed him to see up close how English soccer fields are maintained.

The project to install the 81,000-square-foot playing surface in Seattle, though, was different than what he was accustomed to.

"The maintenance is very similar," Vanos said. "It's just the actual install and the way the sod was grown and everything constructed, was kind of a one-of-a-kind process. It's not something that's typical."

Although Seattle was the final destination of the field, which is a mixture of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass , its journey began on the outskirts of Moses Lake at a facility that grew several of the fields used during the World Cup. The grass was grown on plastic sheeting over a thin layer of sand that forces its roots to grow outward instead of down, creating a dense field that can be easily rolled up and transported to stadiums throughout the country.

"It roots faster, it, like, knits together quicker, it's kind of ready to play on within days of install," Vanos said of the benefits of growing the playing surface off site.

Once installed at the stadium, the field is stitched with synthetic fiber every 2 centimeters.

At the stadium, the field was installed about 18 inches above the synthetic turf, which allows for a drainage and watering system to sit below the playing surface.

As required by FIFA, the field can be fully watered in under three minutes using a high-speed rotary head. The field is also carefully manicured to ensure that it remains pristine throughout the tournament.

"We walk-mow the field every day. Everything's conducted in a very pedestrian manor," Vanos said. "There's no, like, large equipment that's taken onto the field."

Ahead of the next match at the stadium, which is scheduled to be played Friday at noon, Vanos said crews hand-fix divots, cleat marks and any other blemishes in the playing surface. The grass is also cut twice a day, watered and holes are poked to ensure that air and water can flow through the surface.

Vanos said the field received positive reviews from the Belgium and Egyptian national teams following Monday's match, and the surface "performed great."

"It was great traction, and the ball roll was great," Vanos said. "It didn't seem to have any problems."

With so much upkeep needed for the World Cup, as well as the required maintenance for the Seahawks practice facility, Vanos has leaned on staff at both sites.

"I've got an amazing staff at the practice facility that do a great job, and they're veterans, they've been there a while," Vanos said. "They know the routine and what we do there. So I'm able to trust that place is running operating really well."

As he watched the first game at the stadium on Monday, Vanos said he couldn't help but feel proud of the work that went into the field.

"You have an end product that people see across the world," Vanos said. "So it's pretty neat to be able to see that on display."

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