Bring it on

News of Canada’s bid to co-host the 2026 World Cup with the United States and Mexico is cause for celebration. Playing host to part of the world’s most popular sports tournament would be a boon for the country. And if Mayor John Tory succeeds in his push to bring at least some of the matches to Toronto, it would be a boon for the city, too.

Hosting the World Cup has historically presented benefits and drawbacks in roughly equal measure. The boost to tourism and retail, the legacy of built infrastructure, the social benefits of mass shared experience — studies have shown these to have a significant positive impact on host cities.

At the same time, the high risk of cost overruns, of injuries and deaths in the rush to build new stadiums — stadiums that often go to seed in the years after the event — and of social unease in the face of massive outlays that might better be used to address more pressing issues, as many argued in the wake of Brazil’s 2014 World Cup, cannot be ignored.

Canada’s current bid to co-host the 2026 Cup minimizes the downsides and improves the risk-reward ratio. Given that we would host only 10 of the tournament’s matches, for instance, it is unlikely that the host city or cities would need to build new stadiums or that the influx of tourists would lead to paralyzing gridlock.

City staff have estimated that bringing the World Cup to Toronto would cost the city somewhere between $30 million and $45 million. Given that Ottawa has already pledged significant help and Queen’s Park would likely chip in, too, that’s a relatively small investment.

That’s especially true when you consider the potential upsides: a surge in tourism and the attendant boost to retail; an opportunity to show off the power of sport to youth and our city to the world; and, of course, the electricity.

Every four years, bars burst at the seams in this city and the streets fill with the sound of honking horns as diaspora communities celebrate victories and grieve defeats.

Imagine how alive our city would be if the drama were happening right here.