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TORONTO — Like an electronic caterpillar, a special machine is inching its way across the BMO Field pitch these days. It’s going 24 hours a day stitching green artificial fibres into the natural grass.

Imagine a sewing machine the size of a Winnebago.

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Housed inside a tarpaulin cover — the eight Europeans staffing the machine find it cold in Canada — giant needles grab the polyethylene fibres and stuff them into the ground every 20 millimetres. The made-in-Abu-Dhabi fibres are 20 centimetres long and stitched 18 centimetres deep into the ground.

Each piece is actually six strands. Pull them apart and tie them together and the fibres being stitched into the stadium by Lake Ontario would span the globe 1.2 times.

Robert Heggie, director of grounds for Toronto FC, delivers the statistic with a hearty laugh.

Thursday was Day 3 with five or six more to go. Heggie says the enhanced pitch will be ready for April 19 when Minnesota United comes to visit.