TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays have signed an agreement with the University of Guelph to provide research on bringing natural grass to Rogers Centre in time for the 2018 season.

President Paul Beeston made the announcement at an event for season-ticket holders Thursday night.

The Toronto Blue Jays have hired the University of Guelph to research the best types of grass to grow indoors as well as the timeline needed to conduct the installation at Rogers Centre. Keith Hamilton/Icon SMI

"It's a formal agreement, and it's pretty exciting from our point of view because we've had many discussions, but now it's to the point where we're actually going forward," Beeston told reporters after the event. "We're looking forward to the report, which should take probably a year, and then we'll go from there."

The 69-year-old Beeston won't be president anymore if and when grass arrives at Rogers Centre. He signed a one-year contract last month and will retire at the end of the season.

The University of Guelph, about 60 miles west of Toronto, is home to the Ontario Agricultural College.

Besides their arrangement with the university to research the best types of grass to grow indoors, the Blue Jays, who are in the midst of installing a new AstroTurf surface for 2015, also need to determine the timing and feasibility of plans to tear up the concrete floor of Rogers Centre and install drainage, as well as lights and machinery to provide air flow.

"What I'm actually worried about is the air," Beeston said. "You need the light, you obviously need the water, we can handle those. Air is the big problem."

Beeston became Toronto's vice president of business operations in 1977, executive vice president of business in 1984 and president and chief operating officer in 1989. He was promoted to chief executive officer in 1991 and held that position until 1997, when he quit to become the COO of Major League Baseball, a role he held until 2002.

He returned to the Blue Jays in October 2008 as interim CEO, and Toronto took off the interim tag a year later.