What will be the World Cup’s legacy?
City has yet to publish plans for 2026, leaving advocates to worry it’s too late for lasting local impact
The kickoff for Toronto’s first game of the 2026 World Cup is still two years away, but to Rosemarie Powell the tournament is already starting to look like a missed opportunity.
As executive director of the nonprofit Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN), Powell has been pushing the city to ensure that a portion of the projected 3,500 jobs generated by the World Cup will be filled by local residents, including Black, Indigenous and racialized workers who have faced barriers to employment.
To Powell and others, whether the economic boon expected from the globally popular soccer tournament — a public investment of at least $380 million, plus a $390-million boost to local GDP — trickles down to area workers will be a key test of the city’s pledge to ensure the games benefit communities, not just wealthy tournament organizers and sponsors. But that pledge may already be on shaky ground.
With the games fast approaching and agreements to deliver the games already signed, the city has yet to finalize plans for tournament legacies or local impact.
“We’re really worried that it’s too late,” Powell said.
A council-requested staff report on the type of equity-based hiring targets TCBN is advocating for was supposed to be published in early 2023, but still hasn’t materialized. Powell is still optimistic the city will implement those targets, as well as provide ways for local businesses to tap into the World Cup. But she argued that unless formal “community benefits agreements” are written into contracts from the outset, “you’re setting the whole process up for failure.”
Toronto is set to host six World Cup matches between June 12 and July 2, 2026. The remainder of the tournament’s 104 games will be staged in Vancouver and 14 cities across the U.S. and Mexico.
Ontario has pledged to cover up to $97 million of Toronto’s costs, and the federal government is also expected to contribute, although it has yet to provide specifics.
City staff have predicted the investment in the games could have positive spinoffs that range from new recreation facilities to helping launch a pro women’s soccer team, from encouraging sport participation to advancing Toronto’s antiracism and climate goals.
But while it’s been six years since Toronto signed on to the North American World Cup bid and two years since FIFA officially selected it as a host, city staff told council in February that the “journey” to develop community benefit and legacy strategies was “just beginning.”
Meanwhile, in the past two years the city has locked itself into important contracts to deliver the games, including a hosting arrangement with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, and a $37-million award for a temporary expansion of BMO Field.
Asked whether the city signing those deals without first finalizing a community benefit plan was an indication Toronto is treating the event’s legacy as an afterthought, director of the World Cup secretariat Sharon Bollenbach said in a statement that staff have been “diligently” following council’s directives for the event.
Bollenbach said staff are “formulating strategies tailored to specific community benefit and legacy plans,” which will align with existing policies on community benefits, workplace development, and supply chain diversity. They are expected to provide an update to council’s meeting in July.
Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik said she’s “concerned” about the slow progress on legacy plans. But last month she moved a motion reiterating council’s request for an “ambitious” community benefits strategy, and she still hopes the city can retroactively apply equity-based hiring targets to contracts it’s already signed.
“It’s not too late, but we do have to work quickly,” she said.
Malik sees other ways the World Cup can improve local communities. Her Spadina—Fort York ward is home to BMO Field where the games will be held, and she’s hoping to speed up planned public realm improvements to nearby Liberty Village — including intersection upgrades, sidewalk installation and greening boulevards — so they will be ready for summer 2026.
Other neighbourhoods also stand to benefit. The city plans to build upgraded training facilities at North York’s Sunnybrook Park and Etobicoke’s Centennial Park, which after the tournament will be permanently available for community use.
Councillors and advocates have proposed additional improvements like installing a bus lane on Dufferin Avenue to serve the stadium.
Mayor Olivia Chow, who inherited Toronto’s World Cup plans when she took office last July, has promised a new oversight structure she’s imposed will ensure the event gives a boost to communities across Toronto.
A committee she announced in March composed of herself, Malik and other councillors will consult local residents, businesses, arts groups, amateur and professional sports teams, and social service agencies on what they hope to get out of the event.
“There are a lot of people that are very excited and want to participate,” Chow told reporters last week.
David Roberts, an associate professor of urban studies at the University of Toronto, said mega sporting events don’t have a strong track record of delivering long-term benefits to host communities, in part because cities focus so much on the logistics of staging them that “there isn’t a lot of thought about what happens after.”
The city has a real chance to use the civic pride generated by the tournament to have creative discussions about Toronto’s future, Roberts said, but while it’s good that leaders are talking about legacy commitments, those ideas “are platitudes until there’s an actual plan put in place.”
A councilrequested staff report on the type of equity-based hiring targets TCBN is advocating for was supposed to be published in early 2023, but still hasn’t materialized