Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium is undergoing a dramatic transformation as it prepares to host soccer's biggest event. Hundreds of corner seats have been ripped out, and truckloads of freshly harvested sod are making the 1,200-mile journey from Washington state to give the venue a World Cup-ready facelift.

The $5 billion stadium, home to the NFL's Rams and Chargers, is in a race against time. With less than a month until the United States faces Paraguay in their opening match, crews are working around the clock. "No sleep. We'll sleep later!" joked Otto Benedict, senior vice president of facility and campus operations, as the venue prepares to be officially handed over to FIFA and renamed "Los Angeles Stadium."

The biggest challenge? Making an American football stadium work for soccer. Since NFL fields are narrower, officials had to remove 100 seats at each corner to squeeze in a FIFA-compliant playing surface. This allows players room for corner kicks and throw-ins, a key difference between the two sports.

FIFA initially wanted pitches up to 80 meters wide at the corners, but quickly realized none of the 11 NFL stadiums hosting matches could meet that requirement. "I think they made a great collaboration with us and all the other NFL stadiums to say, 'how far can we get?'" Benedict explained.

SoFi already had some "demountable" corner seats that could be removed "LEGO-style," but crews went a step further, tearing out two extra rows of permanent seats at two corners to create additional space. The silver lining for fans? Those sitting near the corners will be right on top of the action. "They wanted to have at least three meters, and we got it up to five meters... Anybody sitting in the corner is gonna have an incredible seat!" Benedict added.

The transformation doesn't stop there. The stadium's NFL-standard synthetic turf has been buried under a complex overlay of sand and flooring material to create a natural grass surface. All corporate sponsor signage has also been removed to meet FIFA's strict branding rules. As of Tuesday, the view from the corners was still a vast, sandy rectangle, with no grass in sight. That's set to change quickly—the sod was harvested in the Pacific Northwest Tuesday night, loaded into refrigerated trucks, and driven nonstop to Los Angeles by teams of drivers working in shifts.

For soccer fans, this is a rare chance to see a world-class NFL venue transformed into a global stage. And for anyone lucky enough to snag those corner seats, the view promises to be unforgettable.