A chance to showcase Toronto, Tory says
Mayor says $30M cost to prepare for the event a ‘modest’ investment
The chance for Canada, and by extension Toronto, to jointly host a World Cup is a once-in-ageneration opportunity, with the financial benefits outweighing the costs, according to Mayor John Tory.
The estimate for the city’s share of expenditures is in the $30 million range, a “modest” investment for a “huge likely return” in terms of tourism and worldwide attention, Tory said on Wednesday, after Canada, the United States and Mexico won the rights to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“There is no place in the world that will respond to the World Cup games being played here with more enthusiasm, more energy and more competitiveness, frankly, than the city of Toronto,” Tory said.
The United 2026 bid was officially selected over Morocco’s bid during the 68th FIFA Congress in Moscow.
Canada will likely host 10 of the tournament’s 80 games, with another 10 to be played in Mexico and the remaining 60 held in the United States. Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton were among 23 potential host cities named in the bid, a number that is expected to be whittled down to 16. Canadian officials say they will push to keep all three of their host cities.
Toronto — which could host one of three back-to-back opening day games, one in each country, at BMO Field — doesn’t yet know how many matches it will get, but Tory supports the joint bid and said the limited number of games allows the city to contain costs.
Tory said the city’s share of the cost will cover things like fan expos and transportation issues. He expects the adjustments to the infrastructure to be modest, but it is something that was assumed when the city got on board with the bid.
“We’ve got to look at this as an opportunity, not a problem,” Tory said. “We’re on the map all the time, but we’ve got to keep putting this city and country on the map and to do it in the sporting world — in the soccer, football world — is a huge opportunity to expose this city and this country to literally billions of people, to attract thousands of tourists to come here.”
There will also be significant costs associated with security for the event, but Tory said the city is counting on the partnerships with other governments to make that happen.
Tory pointed to the city’s recent experience hosting the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games in 2015 and the Invictus Games in 2017 as blueprints for making the proper arrangements for the World Cup, though he expects the 2026 tournament to be narrower in scope than the Pan Am Games, given the tournament will be confined to a single principle venue, BMO Field, and a few smaller sites for practices.
The stadium will also get an upgrade for the World Cup, with the capacity growing from about 15,000 seats to 45,000 thanks to temporary stands in the north and south end, the set-up put in place for last year’s MLS Cup final and the NHL’s Centennial Classic in 2016.
“Right now the plan that we submitted was for temporary (seats), which meet the FIFA standards but … as we continue to grow, it may be that we decide that we make them permanent,” Toronto FC president Bill Manning said.
Tory said the city has yet to invest any money in the venture. His involvement so far adds up to phone calls, letters and meetings with FIFA officials to sell them on Toronto.
At the moment, he says that he has no concrete estimate on the returns that he expects the World Cup will bring to Toronto.