Mayor John Tory backs 2026 World Cup bid

Phil C. McNasty · Jan 22, 2018

Holy shit, I hope we get it. Canada on its own would never get it, but a joint bid with USA/Mexico stands a decent chance

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/01/22/mayor-john-tory-backs-2026-world-cup-bid.html

Mayor John Tory backs 2026 World Cup bid

Toronto would compete to host three to five games if the Canada-Mexico-U.S. three-country proposal is selected; Tory calls it an “once-in-a-lifetime chance . . . at a very limited cost.”

A World Cup in Toronto is an “irresistible” opportunity if you ask Mayor John Tory, who said that Torontonians are just as enthusiastic about the possibility.

“I think if you ask the taxpayers . . . they’d rather have the money go to that than anything else we do,” Tory said in a telephone interview Sunday.

Canada is in the midst of a three-country bid for the 2026 World Cup, along with the United States and Mexico. The winner will be picked in June and if the North American countries get the tournament, Canada will host 10 games.

Toronto will compete with Edmonton, Montreal and Vancouver for three to five of those games. The host cities will be selected in 2021.

A report from the City of Toronto says the World Cup would bring “substantial economic and global media impacts” with “very limited financial and other risks.” the report says that the city would have to get the federal and provincial governments to share costs with them if they were to go ahead with a bid.

“I’m particularly confident in the case of the federal government because it’s a national bid,” said Tory

shack · Jan 22, 2018

Phil C. McNasty said:
Canada on its own would never get it, but a joint bid with USA/Mexico stands a decent chance

It will have to be a deal that is fair to the U.S., not like NAFTA.

Phil C. McNasty · Jan 22, 2018

shack said:
It will have to be a deal that is fair to the U.S., not like NAFTA

Its not the US who decides on that, it is FIFA

VERYBADBOY · Jan 22, 2018

Phil C. McNasty said:
Its not the US who decides on that, it is FIFA

... and deals with FIFA are one sided to their benefit.

VBB

jcpro · Jan 22, 2018

Stupid idea, par for the course for Tory, though. America is more than capable of holding it by itself and so can Mexico. In fact, both of them already hosted it and have the facilities. Tory wants to pay 40-50 million (a hundred in reality) for a few group games. Of course, Toronto does not have a soccer stadium big enough to hold a world cup game.

mclarkez1980 · Jan 22, 2018

Yup, can't wait to get my tickets for Honduras v Madagascar

Phil C. McNasty · Jan 22, 2018

jcpro said:
Stupid idea, par for the course for Tory, though. America is more than capable of holding it by itself and so can Mexico. In fact, both of them already hosted it and have the facilities. Tory wants to pay 40-50 million (a hundred in reality) for a few group games. Of course, Toronto does not have a soccer stadium big enough to hold a world cup game

The minimum capacity for a World Cup stadium has to be 35,000. BMO Field has seated capacity of 30,991.
I think adding 4,009 seats wouldnt be too difficult

jcpro · Jan 22, 2018

Phil C. McNasty said:
The minimum capacity for a World Cup stadium has to be 35,000. BMO Field has seated capacity of 30,991.
I think adding 4,009 seats wouldnt be too difficult

I agree, but whichever way you look at it, BMO is a second rate facility as far as soccer stadiums go. I never understood why they didn't build a proper stadium rated for 40k-50k seats. Surely, the GTA can justify such building.

Phil C. McNasty · Jan 22, 2018

jcpro said:
I agree, but whichever way you look at it, BMO is a second rate facility as far as soccer stadiums go. I never understood why they didn't build a proper stadium rated for 40k-50k seats. Surely, the GTA can justify such building

I think they underestimated the popularity of Toronto FC and MLS in general.

But yeah, we definitely need a bigger stadium in Toronto.
Maybe they can build a new one in Ontario Place and give BMO field to Argos

HOLLYWOODG · Jan 22, 2018

A great way for TFC to get the government to pay for a new stadium.

thailover · Jan 22, 2018

Canada will be lucky to get 6-8 out of the 42+ games
Toronto gets 2-3 at best
Bigger stadium for TFC—-settle down
We are talking about minor league soccer here
In comparison to hockey this is between ahl & echl type of soccer compared to euro leagues

Ref · Jan 22, 2018

Phil C. McNasty said:
The minimum capacity for a World Cup stadium has to be 35,000. BMO Field has seated capacity of 30,991.
I think adding 4,009 seats wouldnt be too difficult

They could put a stadium on that floating park above the rail yards. Maybe they could build some monorails to bring the fans. Add a casino...Hey we could call it Ford Park.

HOLLYWOODG · Jan 22, 2018

HOLLYWOODG said:
A great way for TFC to get the government to pay for a new stadium.

Fortunately, Tory may serve only one more term. If he served as Mayor for more than a decade the City of Toronto's finances would be an utter mess.

Toronto's municipal finances are already trending in a bad direction as it is. Under his leadership the fallout would be accelerated.

glamphotographer · Feb 8, 2018

We have a 50 percent change of winning that bid. Morocco is the only other in the running. Given that 2018 is in Russia and 2022 is in the middle east, 2026 is coming to this side of the planet is almost a sure thing.

glamphotographer · Feb 8, 2018

Phil C. McNasty said:
The minimum capacity for a World Cup stadium has to be 35,000. BMO Field has seated capacity of 30,991.
I think adding 4,009 seats wouldnt be too difficult

No it won't be too difficult and won't cost much as they can put in a temporary grandstand of 10,000 more seats on the North and South side of BMO field.

Insidious Von · Feb 9, 2018

Phil C. McNasty said:
But yeah, we definitely need a bigger stadium in Toronto.
Maybe they can build a new one in Ontario Place and give BMO field to Argos

BMO was built on the same ground plan as the Bernabeu. When the famed home of Real Madrid first opened it seated 19,000. There's plenty of room to expand BMO.

Gibbons#1 · Feb 9, 2018

Being joint hosts means Canada would also automatically qualify for the World Cup. Probably the only way we can qualify but still can’t have a party and not invite the (joint) hosts.

So we’d get Canada’s 3 group stage games for sure plus a few others.

thailover · Feb 9, 2018

The automatic berths for host nation no longer applies
Qatar in 2022 has to go thru qualifications

Phil C. McNasty · Feb 9, 2018

thailover said:
The automatic berths for host nation no longer applies
Qatar in 2022 has to go thru qualifications

Are you sure?? So is this now gonna be the norm, all future hosts have to qualify??

According to wiki Qatar have already qualified: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup

Phil C. McNasty · Feb 9, 2018

Also FIFA will increase the world cup from 32 to 48 teams for the 2026 tournament.
That should give Canada a bit more chance to qualify depending on how many spots CONCACAF are given

Mayor John Tory backs 2026 World Cup bid

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